The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast

You don't sell courses. You don't sell PDFs. You sell sessions, and every email list tip online seems to assume you have a shop tab full of digital products. In this episode, I'm spilling the tea on three ways family photographers can grow an email list when all you have to sell are sessions (like THAT is the only thing you do!!!)

I'm talking about this because I see it all the time. Photographers who want a stronger email list keep getting advice built for online educators, myself included. If sessions are your one and only product, these three local collaboration ideas put you in front of the families you want to photograph, and none of them require you to start a podcast or YouTube channel. Grab a notebook, because your action step has a deadline of the end of this week.

What you'll learn in this episode

• The local vendor giveaway setup that hands you a segmented list of moms during the exact season they're thinking about photos
• Which local businesses make the best giveaway partners (hint: none of them hold a camera)
• The giveaway mistake I made years ago that had a family coming back to cash in a session two years later
• AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/grow-email-list-family-photographer/

▸ The Family Photographer's Marketing Society, my monthly membership where I hand you a marketing plan every Thursday: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/the-family-photographers-marketing-society

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love

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Your December roster (aka your clients) were decided back in September (because of marketing). That means right now, in September, you're deciding what February looks like. If your marketing falls apart every October and January shows up with an empty calendar, you don't have a time problem or a discipline problem. You have a decision problem, and that's much easier to fix. I promise

This is Part 3 of my September marketing series for family photographers, and it is the one that holds the other two up. In Part 1 we covered the three layers of a marketing system. In Part 2, we covered the 4C Framework and what goes inside those layers. Today I am walking you through the marketing rhythm that keeps both of them alive during your busiest, messiest, most over-committed season of the year.

I am also spilling the tea on what this looks like in my own business right now!!!!

What you'll hear in this episode

• Why marketing is the first thing to fall off your list in busy season (and why it has nothing to do with how hard you work)
• The reason 70 of your 90 marketing minutes disappear before you write a single caption
• How to pick your weekly marketing day, and why the day you choose does not matter one bit
• The three separate jobs hiding inside the word "marketing," and why doing them at 9:47 pm on a Sunday makes your brain stall out
• What I do in 20- and 30-minute pockets now that batching a full month is off the table for me
• AND SO MUCH MORE!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/family-photography-marketing-plan/

▸ The Family Photographer's Marketing Society, my monthly membership where I hand you a marketing plan every Thursday: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/the-family-photographers-marketing-society

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love

marketing plan for family photographers, weekly marketing rhythm for photographers, busy season marketing photographers, why my january is empty photography, slow season marketing for photographers, batching content for photographers, marketing cadence for solo photographers, how to market a photography business consistently, family photography business marketing tips, 4c framework for photographers, email marketing for family photographers, instagram marketing for family photographers, family photographers marketing society, marketing systems for creative businesses, photography marketing during maternity leave, how far ahead to market photography sessions, minimum viable marketing plan photographers, marketing for busy mom photographers, nashville family photographer educator

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It's 9:47 PM on a Sunday night. You open Instagram, tap the plus button, type three words into the caption box, delete them, and somehow end up two hours deep in another photographer's feed with nothing posted. Friend, you are not out of ideas, and you are not uncreative. You're asking yourself the wrong question, and in this episode (watch it on YouTube or listen right here on the podcast) I'm spilling the tea on the question I want you to ask instead.

This is part two of my September marketing series. In part one, we diagnosed what keeps you from a consistent marketing system. Today, I'm walking you through why "What should I post?" freezes your brain, and how my 4C Framework (Connect, Clarify, Celebrate, and Call to Action) shrinks your options from infinity down to four, each tied to a stage of your client journey. I'm talking about this because almost every family photographer I teach posts one type of content on repeat, and it leaves gaps in how she talks to future clients.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why "What should I post?" has unlimited answers, which means it has zero
• The smaller question that turns a frozen Sunday night into a decision your tired brain can make
• The one job your Connect content has (hint: it isn't selling, and it isn't teaching)
• How to write Clarify content that answers the questions moms wonder about but never DM you
• Why posting nothing but galleries and testimonials leaves holes in your client journey
• The three pieces every call to action needs, and what happens when one goes missing
• A 10 to 15 minute homework audit of your last 12 Instagram posts
• AND SO MUCH MORE!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/content-ideas-for-family-photographers/

▸ The Family Photographer's Marketing Society, my monthly membership where I hand you a marketing plan every Thursday: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/the-family-photographers-marketing-society

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love

content ideas for family photographers, what should I post as a photographer, Instagram content for family photographers, 4C Framework marketing, content pillars for photographers, family photographer marketing plan, Instagram caption ideas for photographers, client journey marketing for photographers, content planning for photographers, how to market a family photography business, top of funnel marketing for photographers, educational content for photographers, testimonial posts for photographers, call to action for photographers, weekly content rotation, Family Photographers Marketing Society, marketing consistency for photographers, September marketing for family photographers

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You made the color-coded content calendar back in January. Then an inquiry came in, one of your kids spiked a fever, three galleries landed in your queue, and you needed to prep a mini session day. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, the calendar stopped existing. You did not decide to quit. You just stopped, and a few weeks later you opened Instagram, saw you hadn't posted in eleven days, and felt that low-grade guilt settle in your chest.

Before you go one more minute thinking this is a you problem, I want to say something. You do not have a discipline problem; you are not lazy, and you are not bad at marketing. What you have is a marketing plan without a marketing system behind it, and those two things are not the same thing at all. A plan is a list of what you hope to do. A system is a structure that holds you up when your life gets loud, and if you are a family photographer heading into busy season, your life is about to get very loud.

This episode is part one of a three part September series. In it, I break down the three layers every family photography marketing system needs, why running your entire business on one of them is wearing you out, and a 20-minute audit that will show you which layer you have been ignoring the longest.

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/family-photography-marketing-system/

▸ The Family Photographer's Marketing Society, my monthly membership where I hand you a marketing plan every Thursday: https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/the-family-photographers-marketing-society

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love

family photography marketing system, marketing for family photographers, marketing plan vs marketing system, SEO for photographers, blogging for family photographers, email marketing for photographers, Instagram marketing for photographers, marketing cadence for photographers, photography business systems, solo photography business, content batching for photographers, family photographer podcast, systems and workflow magic

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It is the first week of September, which means your inbox is filling up, your calendar is filling up, and somewhere in the back of your brain there is a quiet voice asking whether you forgot to follow up with someone who emailed you two weeks ago.

If that is you, hear me before we go one sentence further: you are not a disorganized person. You are not flaky. You are not bad at business.

You are missing a system. That's it.

And systems are learnable, which makes this a fixable problem before your fall season really gets going. In this episode, I'm walking you through the three Dubsado features I use to organize my family photography client work, plus the visual Trello board I built to catch every task a CRM cannot touch.

Here's why I'm covering this now instead of in November: September through December is when most of your year's work shows up and when your capacity is stretched the thinnest. The experience you deliver this fall determines whether you have a busy season next fall. Your client workflow is not just an internal organization thing. It is client experience, it is retention, and it is marketing.

What you'll hear in this episode

• Why a chaotic workflow does not fail loudly, and what it actually costs you in October and November
• What a CRM is in plain English (no tech jargon, I promise)
• The three Dubsado features that will change your fall, and the ones you can skip for now
• And So Much More!!!!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/family-photography-workflow/

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love

family photography client workflow, Dubsado for photographers, Dubsado workflow setup, CRM for family photographers, client experience workflow photography, canned email templates photographers, photography business automation, Trello board for photographers, project management for photographers, busy season systems photographers, fall session workflow, photography inquiry follow up system, client onboarding photography, mini session scheduler Dubsado, photography SOPs, backend systems for photographers, photography client retention, how to organize photography business, Dubsado project statuses

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It is December 22nd. You have three last-minute sessions on the calendar because a family messaged you begging for updated photos before the grandparents arrive, and you said yes. It is 11:30pm, you are culling one gallery with five more stacked behind it, and your own family keeps asking when you will be done with work.

Sound familiar?

Here is what took me way too many years to figure out: the December you get is not decided in December. It is decided in September.

The choices you make over the next four to six weeks around your numbers and your marketing determine whether your holiday season has margin in it or whether you get burned to a crisp by New Year's Eve. So today I am spilling the tea on the exact three things I am working on in my own photography business right now, at the end of August, and how each one connects to what December and January will actually look like.

I am also sharing something personal: I am taking January, February, and March off for maternity leave with baby number three. None of this is hypothetical for me. It is my literal September to-do list.

What you'll hear in this episode

• Why saying yes to every December session is not a discipline problem (it is a missing system)
• How to calculate your December number, and the three pieces most photographers skip
• The tax percentage I set aside every single month, no exceptions
• Why fall is peak season for shiny object syndrome and how to spot it before you check out
• The farming analogy that explains why your January is dead silent
• And so much more!!!!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/slow-season-planning-family-photographers/

▸ Get your free ticket to the Black Friday Virtual Summit: https://blackfridaysummit.com/

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

slow season planning for photographers, family photographer business planning, how to prepare for slow season photography, december overhead costs photography, family photographer taxes percentage, paying yourself photography business, bookkeeping template for photographers, marketing for family photographers, seo blogging for photographers, long form content for photographers, january bookings for photographers, winter family photo sessions marketing, black friday for photographers, photography business maternity leave, sustainable photography business systems, photography marketing cadence, family photographers marketing society, shiny object syndrome small business, booking slow months photography

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Check your inbox. I bet there is a Black Friday email sitting in there right now from a course creator, a template shop, or a digital product seller, and I bet you skimmed it and archived it and thought "well, that's nice for them." Then you closed the tab and counted yourself out of Black Friday for another year. In this episode, I am making the case that Black Friday is for you as a family photographer, and no, it does not involve slashing your session prices.

I am talking about this in the middle of August on purpose. Every year I watch family photographers ignore Black Friday until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, then panic-post a mini session discount they never wanted to offer at a price they never wanted to charge. That is not a Black Friday problem. That is a missing system problem, and August is when you fix it.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why the version of Black Friday in your head (giant red banner, 70% off, JCPenney doorbusters) was never built for a service provider
• The math that makes the course creator model fall apart the second a photographer copies it
• Four reasons Black Friday is worth your time, even with a small email list
• Why a warm list of 200 local families outperforms 3,000 subscribers who forgot they downloaded something from you in 2022
• And So Much More!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/black-friday-for-family-photographers-skip-the-discount/

▸ Get your free ticket to the Black Friday Virtual Summit: https://blackfridaysummit.com/

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me https://www.instagram.com/dollydelongphoto/ so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

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If a quiet January makes your stomach drop, pull up a chair. I am giving you a behind-the-scenes peek at the session I recorded for the 2026 Black Friday Summit, which runs August 25 through August 27, and my session takes a different angle than most of the others you will see there. The other speakers walk you through a Black Friday that already happened. I am walking you through the plan I am building right now for my own photography business, before the cart ever opens.

Here is the tough love I lead with: panic marketing is a pricing problem wearing a marketing costume. Quarter one is slower than molasses for most of us, and when January shows up with an empty calendar and no plan, we start slashing prices to get somebody, anybody, on the books. Thinking ahead is a skill you can train, not a personality trait you were born with, so in this episode I am spilling the tea on the seven steps I am working through for my own branding photography sale.

Mostly, go grab your seat at the summit so you can catch the full session plus every other speaker! https://blackfridaysummit.com/

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why panic marketing in January is a planning problem, not a marketing problem
• The two money questions to answer before you choose a single Black Friday offer
• Why I am selling ONE offer this year instead of discounting my whole menu
• The booking chain I build and test by early September so I never answer an availability email
• And so much more!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/black-friday-plan-for-photographers/

▸ Get your free ticket to the Black Friday Virtual Summit: https://blackfridaysummit.com/

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me @dollydelongeducation so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

black friday for photographers, black friday summit 2026, black friday plan for family photographers, how to fund your slow season, slow season income for photographers, q1 planning for photographers, black friday offer ideas for service providers, branding photography sale, how to price a black friday offer, email list segmentation for photographers, dubsado booking automation, launch planning for photographers, marketing for family photographers, photography business systems, black friday marketing without ads, google business profile for photographers, cash flow planning for creatives, how to avoid discounting your photography prices, family photographer business podcast

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Guess what percentage of a recent course launch came straight from a waitlist? 78 percent. In this episode, I'm sitting down with email strategist Allison Hardy to spill the tea on exactly how she built that number, and why your email list might be sitting on more Black Friday potential than you realize.

Allison is an email strategist who helps business owners write highly strategic email funnels that actually sell, whether that's a course, a membership, a VIP day, or a coaching program. She's a returning guest speaker for our 2026 Black Friday Summit, and in this conversation she breaks down her exact waitlist strategy, the biggest misconception people have about Black Friday prep, and how service providers (not just digital product sellers) can use this same approach to fill their slowest months.

What you'll hear in this episode

• The biggest misconception about Black Friday email marketing (and why waiting until November is costing you sales)
• The real difference between an email list that just sits there and one that's actually primed to buy
• The three things that made Allison's waitlist convert at 78 percent
• And SO MUCH MORE!

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/black-friday-email-marketing-strategy-that-converts/

▸ Get your free ticket to the Black Friday Virtual Summit: https://blackfridaysummit.com/

Connect with Allison Hardy

💻 Website 📱 Instagram

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me @dollydelongeducation so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

black friday email marketing strategy, email marketing for black friday, waitlist strategy for launches, black friday launch prep, email funnel for course launch, black friday summit 2026, email marketing for family photographers, how to build an email waitlist, black friday marketing for service providers, marketing cadence for photographers, email marketing for small business, black friday sales strategy, how to sell with email, email list monetization, presell photography sessions, Flodesk email marketing, black friday email sequence, waitlist conversion strategy, email marketing for online business owners

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I am sitting down with Megan Moore, a minimalist marketing strategist and Black Friday Summit speaker, to talk about why your Black Friday sale starts today, not in November.

Megan owns a marketing agency and has been helping entrepreneurs in the digital space since 2014, working from her tiny house on the side of a mountain in British Columbia. Before running her agency, she owned a Pilates studio and a digital magazine, and she now teaches business owners how to market with one strong content anchor instead of chasing every platform at once.

What you'll hear in this episode

• Why Megan calls herself a "minimalist marketing strategist" and what that means for a solo business owner
• The wardrobe analogy that makes minimalist marketing click
• Why long-form content should be the anchor everything else gets built around
• What connection-driven Black Friday marketing looks like versus the hustle-and-panic version most of us know
• And so much more

Resources & Links Mentioned In This Episode

▸ Read the full blog post that goes with this episode (that way, you get all the links mentioned): https://systemsandworkflowmagic.com/black-friday-marketing-tips-for-photographers/

▸ Get your free ticket to the Black Friday Virtual Summit: https://blackfridaysummit.com/

Connect with Megan

Instagram

Connect with Me (Dolly DeLong Education)

💻 Website 📱 Instagram 🎥 YouTube

Thanks for joining me on The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Sign up for weekly reminders + free resources here → Business Tools

🥳 Share a screenshot of this episode on your IG story and tag me @dollydelongeducation so I can cheer you on!

🔗 Affiliate links included. I only recommend products I personally use and love.

minimalist marketing strategy, Black Friday marketing for photographers, Black Friday Summit 2026, connection driven marketing, repeatable marketing system, long form content strategy, marketing for solo business owners, family photographer Black Friday sale, how to prep for Black Friday, minimalist marketing strategist, audience growth for small business, Black Friday advice for photographers, email list growth for photographers, Black Friday burnout prevention, marketing systems for family photographers, blogging for family photographers, connection driven Black Friday sale, Megan Moore marketing agency, minimalist marketing strategy for small business, sustainable business growth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.