This Can't Be That Hard

The biggest mistake photographers make when it comes to marketing is that they aren’t consistent about it. Today on the podcast, Julie Christie breaks down her overwhelm-free strategy for creating consistent content that will get your business in front of prospective clients and earn their trust over time. 

We’ll discuss 

• What the different options are when it comes to key content
• How to plan key content that will speak directly to your bluebird clients
• How to repurpose that key content in multiple ways to extend its reach (and reduce your workload)

Julie also shares how much time photographers should dedicate to marketing and the top marketing strategies she’s seeing work right now.

If filling your calendar this year felt hard, this week’s episode will motivate and empower you for an easier year ahead!

LINKS:
Julie's Instagram
Julie's Marketing Membership

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Well, guys, we've made it, it is Thanksgiving here in the US. And whether you're here in the US or not, whether you celebrate this holiday of questionable origins or not, I think we can all benefit from taking this annual opportunity to focus a bit on gratitude.  And today’s quick episode to remind you to show gratitude …to yourself.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

I know you’re busy, and I promise: today’s podcast isn’t going to add to your to-do list. Instead, I wanted to spend my time this week celebrating the value of what we do for a living. It can be easy - especially this time of year - to feel worn down, under-appreciated, and burned out. So Kami Vanous and I are chatting about why we do what we do, and why self-care (in the form of boundaries and profitable pricing and making time for a book by the fire every now and then) is necessary to keep showing up and doing our important work.

Kami’s sharing some of the stories and experiences (along with mistakes and near-misses) she’s had in her 12+ year career, and I think you’ll agree: her insights are just the thing to help us through to the end of the year and the promised land that is a quiet January.

LINKS:
Lucky Friday Studios
Kami’s Instagram
Simple Sales Masterclass

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Lisa DiGeso is a newborn photographer, podcaster, and fellow education junkie, and although we could easily have spent the entire episode bonding over those overlapping points on our respective bios, instead we dove deep on her online education platform, The Milky Way. Long before Covid forced ALL the photography conferences online, Lisa was figuring out how to create an online experience that truly served her audience.  The Milky Way offers attendees the ability to sample a variety of teachers, styles, and topics, all at a very reasonable price. I'm excited to be one of those teachers, and hope to see you there! Tickets to the Milky Way's most popular retreat of the year launch on 11/10 - tune in to find out all about what you can expect, then follow the link in the show notes to secure earlybird pricing before it flies away!

LINKS:

The Milky Way Newborn Retreat Tickets
Lisa’s Instagram
The Art and Soul Show
The Milky Way

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

It's November, and you know what that means: it's getting to be feel-good movie season! In that spirit, I bring you today's conversation. Melissa is a student of mine, and over the course of the last 18 months, I have loved watching her business skyrocket: she’s nearly quadrupled her prices and is busier than ever… even in the wake of a move from DC to Florida.  But it wasn’t until recently that I learned more about her backstory - how just a couple of years ago things had gotten bad enough that she actually had to go get another job and all but shutter her 10 year photography business. Today, we’re talking about how she turned what felt at the time like failure into an amazing comeback… that just keeps getting better!

Links:

Simple Sales Masterclass - https://www.thiscantbethathard.com/simple
Melissa’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/melissaarlena
Melissa’s website - https://www.melissaarlenaphotography.com
Melissa’s Blueprint Review - https://www.melissaarlenaphotography.com/the-simple-sales-system-blueprint-review/

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

In keeping with the spooooky Halloween season, I’m dusting the cobwebs off my own personal crypt of In-Person Sales horror stories.  While IPS is widely known as the gold standard for selling photography - in some ways, with good reason - there's a bit of a dark side that few ever talk about... so today that's whta we're doing!

LINKS:
Simple Sales Masterclass

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Chatting with my friend Colie James always gets my creative juices flowing, but in today’s interview, I was also seeing dollar signs! Colie calls 2021 “The Year of the Pivot,” and we can all learn from her experiences and flexibility as she shares about how to handle tasks that no longer light you up, as well as leveraging what does light you up into possible revenue streams. But my favorite aha moment in today's conversation came from our discussion of VIP days: what they are and how they can be incorporated into a photography business.

Links:

Register for the Planning for Profit live workshop
Colie James Photography
Colie James Instagram
EP 030: All Things CRM, Part 1 with Colie James
EP 032: All Things CRM, Part 2, A Roundtable Discussion

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

It may seem early, but now is the time to start thinking about how to show your appreciation to your clients this holiday season. Every year, my goal is to strengthen the bond I have with my clients in a way that won’t break the bank (and may actually help bring in more revenue), and since I imagine those might be YOUR goals, too, I wanted to share some ideas and best practices. These five ideas range from nearly free to a max of around $25-30, but all of them are thoughtful, personal, and designed to remind your clients why they hired you and why they should recommend you to everyone they know and hire you again soon.

LINKS:

Register for Planning for Profit Holiday Sales Training
Rose McAvoy’s Video

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

We all make transitions in our business, some larger (like starting our businesses in the first place or switching from weddings to portraits), some smaller (like increasing our pricing or changing our sales structure). What often happens, though, is that we make those transitions haphazardly - with a vague vision of the end goal in mind, but no organized plan for how to get from here to there. Today, Mary Otanez - a veteran photographer and transitioner - is sharing her three-phase framework for planning and executing smooth transitions.

This framework is beautiful in its simplicity, and Mary’s practical advice on a subject that can be both overwhelming and hard to structure is going to be something you’ll want to come back to again and again.

Links:

Mary’s Website
Mary’s Instagram
Register for Planning for Profit (Registration is closed)

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

I have a private Facebook group for photographers who want to talk business. Why private, you ask? Because I want people to feel free to ask hard questions - questions they may not want their friends and family (much less their clients) to see that they’re struggling with. The conversations are great, but certain topics tend to come up over and over again, so I figured I’d take some time this week to weigh in on five of the most common issues that come up.

Links:

Join the Facebook Group
EP 054 - Putting A Price On Privacy
Planning For Profit Training -  Registration is closed

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!