This Can't Be That Hard

I was talking to a photographer friend who - by every outside measure - is killing it. On the inside, though? She admitted she was struggling with feelings of self-doubt and stress about the future of her business.

I think a lot of us carry around a mental image of some summit - a destination that we will reach where things in our business will finally feel settled and all the hard work will be behind us. But the longer I do this, the more convinced I am that there is no such destination. And in a weird way, I've made peace with that.

In this re-release from last summer (an episode I wanted to bring back because it feels even more relevant right now), I'm sharing three specific signs that you're further along the trail than you realize:

•   You've shifted from focusing on more to focusing on better
•   You've stopped fighting the slow seasons and started planning for them    
•   Things that used to eat hours now take minutes

If you're feeling behind or worried that your numbers aren't where they should be, this one's for you. Short, direct, and hopefully a little bit of a relief.

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!

Having concerns about AI isn't a bad thing: it means you're thinking critically about an issue that warrants critical thought. But nor do concerns mean you have to (or should) avoid AI altogether.

The issues surrounding this world-changing technology are big, and I didn't want to gloss over them: What does "authenticity" mean in the AI era? What happens to your brain when you outsource thinking? What is the environmental cost of data centers? Are the companies building these tools considering anything beyond their bottom line?

So in this episode, I'm opening the whole can of worms, diving straight into the complex, nuanced, and evolving conversation. I'm using the AI triangle framework from last week's episode (episode 369) to work through each concern honestly, so if you haven't listened to that yet, start there.

Here's what we're getting into this week:

•   The authenticity question: what it actually means to use AI and still have the work be yours
•   Brain rot - is it real, and what the CEO/attorney/editor framework actually does to your thinking
•   Ethics and tool choice: why not all AI companies are the same, and why that matters more than people realize    
•   The environmental impact of AI, and what "intentional use" looks like in practice    

I'm also sharing the 5-Day Content Challenge we just launched - a free way to test the same AI content system that powers the Consistency Club, with almost no setup required.

Try the 5-Day Content Challenge: https://www.thiscantbethathard.com/5dcc

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 remember the exact moment I first heard about ChatGPT. I was walking my dog, talking to my dad on the phone, and he mentioned this thing he'd heard about on NPR - some AI tool where you could just type any question and get an answer. My reaction? "Huh. Why would I need that when I have Google?"

That was not that long ago. Wild.

Just a couple of short years later, and AI is literally everywhere. But a lot of photographers I talk to are genuinely conflicted about using it - and I think that conflict is worth taking seriously! So in this episode, I'm sharing the framework I personally use to make sure the work I do with AI tools feels aligned with my values.

Here's what I'm covering:

•   Why I think of AI the same way I think about switching from auto mode to manual on your camera (and why that analogy actually holds up)
•   The three things you need every single time you sit down to work with AI
•   Where AI genuinely moves the needle... and where it needs to stay out of the way
•   The real gift AI gives you (which probably isn't what you think)

If you've ever gotten AI output that felt like beige content that could have come from anyone, this is for you.

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!

Okay, I'll just say it: I am an Airtable evangelist. I have been for years. It runs my episode archive, my client data, my business dashboard, my production workflows - honestly, it runs a lot of my personal life too. And I know that sounds like something I'm pitching, but I genuinely make zero money on Airtable. I just really, really believe in this tool.

The problem is that what Airtable does can be hard to explain - and that makes a lot of photographers click around in it for a few minutes, get confused, and close the tab forever. That's exactly why I brought Ashley Rose back on the show this week.

Ashley was here in February for a conversation about organizing your business (go back and listen to that one if you missed it). This time, we went deeper on Airtable specifically: what makes it genuinely different from a spreadsheet, how it stacks up against tools like Dubsado or HoneyBook, and the kinds of things photographers are actually building inside it that you might not have imagined yet.

In this episode, we cover:

•   The real difference between a spreadsheet and a database - and why it matters for your client experience
•   How automations inside Airtable can handle client follow-up, reminders, and team communication without you lifting a finger
•   Why Ashley recommends Airtable even for photographers who have zero clients yet
•   A conversation about whether you should keep your CRM alongside Airtable (or if you can let one of them go)
•   Where to start if the blank canvas feels overwhelming

If you've been curious about Airtable but didn't know where to begin, this one's for you.

LINKS:

• Follow Systems Over Stress by Ashley Rose for practical systems, workflows, and business tips and Ashley's masterclass.
•  Explore The Photographer’s Business Dashboard — an all-in-one Airtable system and course designed to help photographers organize leads, projects, finances, and workflows with ease. 

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!

Tech tools and software are an easy thing to accumulate. Most of us add tools when we find them, promising ourselves we'll dive in "as soon as we have time. Before long, we've got a giant tech stack that just kind of happened.

In this episode, I'm talking about the costs of "tech debt" - not just the financial expense, but the minutes, hours, even cumulative days that we all spend on workarounds, redos, and tweaks, all the while thinking, "I'm sure I had a tool that was supposed to do that!"

We'll also cover the three layers of your business where tech tends to accumulate, along with a simple, three-question audit to help you see your system clearly.

The goal here isn't a perfect stack... it's just an intentional one, where you've got all the tools you need (and none you don't).

Resources mentioned: Photographer's Business Dashboard 

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!

Ever wonder what it actually looks like to build a profitable photography business on lower prices and higher volume? That's what this conversation with Naomi Boyer is all about.

After a rough year in 2024 where inquiries were down and the business just felt like an uphill battle, Naomi decided to try going all in on something she'd been developing on the side: school and event photography built on a high-volume, streamlined model.

The result? Was so great that she shifted her entire business model.

This episode gets into the real mechanics of making a volume model work - not just the vision, but the actual tools, pricing logic, and workflow decisions that make it profitable rather than just busy. Naomi is honest about where volume photographers go wrong (usually by trying to cut costs in exactly the wrong places) and what she's built to make the numbers actually work.

We dig into...

•   How Naomi recognized the workflow she'd already built was more valuable than she realized
•   Why volume pricing requires MORE business knowledge, not less
•   The tools that make her system run
•   The difference between "volunteer" clients (like school photos) and popup studio clients - and why the numbers are surprisingly different
•   What she'd tell any photographer considering this model before they dive in

Naomi also has a workflow resource for photographers who want to look over her shoulder at exactly how she runs these sessions - details below.

Links:  

• Get access to Naomi's School Photographers Playbook 
• Get inspired by Naomi's work.
• Edit smarter, not harder: ImagenAI
• Simplify your sales and client experience here GotPhoto
• Bring your images to life with stunning prints at Color Inc Photo Lab

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!

What if the most profitable thing in your business isn't your highest-priced offer?

That's the question behind this episode - and the answer might surprise you. I brought in two photographers, Jenn Chen and Allison Maxwell, who have each built something I find genuinely fascinating: a lower-priced, accessible offer that sits at the front of their business and funnels clients into their higher-ticket work. Not as a loss leader or freebie, but as an actual profit center that also happens to grow their audience and warm up ideal clients.

Jenn runs a family and newborn photography business in California and started doing confetti mini sessions early in her business as a creative list-building strategy. Allison is based in central Arkansas and built her Playful Portraits offer out of necessity after an unexpected relocation.

In this episode, we dig into...

•   How both women made sure their accessible offer felt genuinely different from their full work (so it wouldn't cannibalize their regular bookings)
•   The soft, non-pushy way they convert mini clients into full-price clients over time    
•   Why Allison says 95% of her full-price work traces back to Playful Portraits - either directly or through referrals
•   What it actually looks like to be a "model mullet" - donkey in the front, unicorn in the back

Links:  

• Follow Jenn Chen on Instagram: 
• Explore Allison Maxwell’s Photography Resources
• See Allison’s Work on Instagram 

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!

You know that moment when you look at your bank statement and realize you're still paying for software you stopped using three months ago? Yep. We've all been there.

Profitability isn't just about what you charge - it's about what you keep. And for most photographers, there's money unnecessarily leaking out of the business every single month that a little attention could stop.

In this episode, I'll walk you through my strategic approach to evaluating business expenses - not as a slash-and-burn exercise, but as a way to make your spending actually work for your business model. You'll come away with:

•   A clear process for getting every expense out of your head and onto paper (or into Airtable!)
•   Two simple filters to help you decide what's worth keeping and what isn't
•   The "don't starve your business" principle (because cutting the wrong things can cost you more in the long run)
•   A lightweight tracking system to keep expenses from getting away from you again

Whether your bank account is looking slim after slow season or you just want to feel more in control of where your money goes, this episode gives you a practical framework to work through it.

LINKS:

•   Photographer's Business Dashboard
•  Business model quiz

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!

What if "Just raise your prices" is the wrong advice for right now?

That's a question a lot of photographers have been sitting with lately - and honestly, it's one worth taking seriously. When budgets feel tight and bookings feel uncertain, the standard advice can start to feel a little tone-deaf. But here's the thing: there are real, strategic ways to increase your profitability without ever touching your prices.

In this episode, I'm revisiting a framework I introduced way back in Episode 38 - the Donkey, Workhorse, and Unicorn business models - and looking at it through a fresh lens. Because after 16 years in this industry, I can tell you that the most profitable version of my business wasn't the one where I was working the hardest or charging the most. It was the one where I finally got smart about how I was structured.    

In this episode, I'm breaking down:  

• Why profitability is about what you KEEP, not just what you charge  
• The three business models that can all be profitable in photography (and the very different ways they get there)  
• Why the donkey model is the most misunderstood (and often the most profitable) of the three  
• How to calculate your actual effective hourly rate so you can see exactly where you stand

This episode is the first in a four-part pricing and money series, and it sets the foundation for everything we'll be covering this month. Whether you're feeling nervous about the economy or just curious about whether there's a smarter way to structure things, this is a good place to start.

LINKS:

• Take the business model quiz:
• Listen to Episode 38 (from 2020)

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!

What if the reason your marketing isn't converting has nothing to do with your content... and everything to do with the part that comes after it?

In this episode, Annemie and Dayna get a little theatrical to break down one of the most important (and most avoided) distinctions in your business: the difference between marketing and selling, and why you genuinely can't have one without the other.

Using Wicked as their framework, they make the case that Glinda (your marketing) gets all the love, while Elphaba (your selling) gets an unfair bad rap. But here's the truth: the magic only happens when they work together.

In this episode:

• Why marketing alone won't grow your business, and what has to happen next
• Where selling gets its "wicked" reputation (and why that's worth unpacking)
• How understanding your numbers changes your relationship with pricing conversations
• What it looks like to switch hats between marketing mode and selling mode, and why that skill is everything

No sparkly wand required... but it wouldn't hurt!

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!