Worth Every Penny Joycast

For the last 15 years, I've worked side-by-side with Andria, my studio manager. She started with me as a photography intern while she was finishing up college. Once she graduated, I didn't let her leave! So what does she do now as the studio manager of Sarah Petty Photography? How do we work together? What do her days look like? That's what this confessions episode is all about.

Hit play to listen in.

Before the pandemic, she was shooting 550 sessions a year and running a $100k+ photography business. But what Debra wanted more than anything was time with her growing family. She'd been a professional photographer for years and was burned out by the late nights, long hours and weekend sessions. How could she cut back to spend more time with her family, without sacrificing her income? On today's podcast, I sat down with Peak Performer of the year, Debra Lawrence. You'll hear her story of how she went from photographing 68 clients in August of 2019 and never seeing her family -- to photographing 3 clients in August of 2020 and earning the EXACT same income AND putting her family first. Hit play now to hear how it all happened for Debra.

Ever find yourself worrying about every possible outcome? Recently, a photographer asked me How to grow thicker skin so she could stop worrying so much. I think it's something that many of us struggle with personally. But in a professional setting, with the pressure of selling your photos to someone, it amplifies all of the feelings (cue the tears). It hurts when we mess up or someone criticizes our photography business. We put so much of ourselves into it that it FEELS personal, even if it is just business. Now that I'm 23 years into my photography career, I've changed A LOT in how I view and respond to negative comments AND have EVEN OVERCOME MY FEAR OF GETTING THOSE NEGATIVE COMMENTS. Today, I'll share my tips for what I do when someone puts me down AND what do to about your own fears that keep you stuck.

How the heck did they do it? Here's part 2 of our advice series with my $100k Yay Award Winning boutique photographers. You'll hear directly from them their #1 piece of advice for getting to $100k a year in your portrait photography business.

I believe one of the most powerful things to see is ordinary people doing extraordinary things. These photographers are just like you– juggling life, family, studio rent, bills with a love for making photos and wanting time freedom and flexibility to put family first. And it's happening for them. I want this for you, too, and I hope this series showed you that it's possible no matter where you live or what obstacles have been put in front of you. And next year, I hope to be giving YOU a $100k Yay award on my stage at Go Boutique Live.

And if you haven't listened to part one yet, go back and listen for amazing advice from photographers in all stages of their photography journey. Press play for part 2.

As you're listening to this episode, I'm in Charlotte, NC getting ready to step on stage in front of 1200 boutique photographers for our once a year, 3-day event, Go Boutique Live. One of my favorite parts of the event is when we get to honor boutique photographers with the YAY awards. We give awards for a lot of things – from you first one thousand dollar client (a Julie) to raising $1k for charity, reaching $10k in sales for the year and $50k in sales for the year. But the highest honor a photographer can earn is the award for $100k or more in sales of portraits from January – December. This year we have more $100k Yay award winners than ever before, despite 2020 being the year of a pandemic. How did they do it? I've asked these incredible photographers to share their advice for reaching $100k in your photography business. Press play now to hear part one of this two part series.

As if it wasn't bad enough that her husband left her for another woman, COVID hit and Colleen Carlson was stuck with a huge mortgage, back taxes and had to return $20,000 in wedding and mitzva deposits. All while raising 2 teenagers on her own who were hurting, too. With a failing photography business as her only income source, Colleen took a leap of faith. In 3 months, she'd sold $45,000 of her photography. On today's podcast, you'll hear a very personal story from a woman who will inspire you, no matter where you are in your photography journey. Hit play now and be prepared to be lifted up by one of the strongest women I know.

If I were to credit a key decision that has helped my business grow, it would be the decision to hire interns. I've always loved mentoring teenagers, especially teenage girls. Back in my ad agency days, the owners would always assign the interns to me because they knew it was my jam. Now, two of my first-ever interns, Andria and Erin, help run my companies. So today, I've asked my two current interns, Marley and Sam, to join me. We're talking about what makes a good intern, how to find interns for your photography business and what interns are looking for before they say YES to working with you.

When Allison Gallagher made the switch from digital files to boutique, she lost 75% of her clients and the rejection and self-doubt floodgates swung open. She wanted so badly to be a good example to her 9-year old daughter as a business owner and felt like she was failing at that. Over the last 3 years, Alison and I have been on a rollercoaster together. In this conversation, we'll chat about how she pushed through all the no's and opened her first photography studio and how her relationship with her daughter has blossomed along with her income. Meet my student, Allison Gallagher.

I have often heard from photographers that they feel tremendous pressure to turn their client artwork around quickly. It seems like you are overserving your clients the faster you deliver their photos, doesn't it? Well…not exactly. If you're feeling the pressure to turn your orders around faster, you don't want to miss this episode. I'll reposition how you look at the timeline of a boutique client so that you can stop feeling so stressed and set realistic expectations for YOU and YOUR client on when their portrait order will be delivered. Let's do this!

It's been a hard go of it for so many people in our world these last 10 months, our photography community included. There are days when we look around and all we see is chaos and uncertainty, making it hard to get out of our own heads to dream of what our photography business could be. It's times like these when you need a story to lean on for hope and I've got one for you. Meet my student, Tracey Beer. Tracey was at a really low point in 2020. Her husband had just lost his job. She was at a crossroads when she made the decision to lean IN to letting her photography business solve the problems she was facing. And it changed everything! This is her story of how she turned her struggle into a gift. And I have a feeling it's just what you need to hear today.