A while ago, I heard someone describe the concept of brand by using this sort of anthropomorphized version, right. So instead of thinking of your brand as a logo and colors and fonts and images and those kinds of things, think of your brand as a person. So is your brand, like the cool kid in class? Is your brand, the Kooky old lady who wears purple glasses? Is your brand, a sort of friendly hippie, you know, lady who shops at the farmers market, like who is your brand?
And when you start thinking about your brand in that way, you can start thinking about like, well, how does that person decorate their house? How, what kind of clothes does that person wear? What colors is that person drawn to? What kinds of topics does that person talk about? And, you know, ultimately, you're your, your person, your brand person is probably going
to be some version of you. But by thinking of it this way, and getting really specific on how you want to show up in your business, you can make decisions about how to, you know how to how to communicate, how to sort of move forward with the look and feel of things like your website, and your packaging, and all of those kinds of things. You can even translate that into price point or what's included
in your packages. So this is obviously a huge kind of topic and one that I have been mulling over or have mulled over in that way ever since I heard that particular description, because
it really grabbed me. And it coincided so perfectly with this idea that the lovely ladies of ink pot creative came to me with for a topic for the podcast, which is how to inject personality into your website in such a way that by the time that someone reaches out to you, by the time you get on that client call, they're essentially salt, they just need to like know the details and know where to sign.
And so Kp and Jessie are joining me today to go through more of the nuts and bolts of that, because it's one thing to have this concept of, oh, my brand is a person and you know, this is what she talks and thinks and feels. It's another thing entirely to figure out how to actually put that into your messaging on your website, how to make it so that without, you know, creating a logo that looks like that person, which is
probably not the best idea. How can you convey the feeling that someone might have if they made best friends with the cool girl in class, right? So they are joining me, the conversation is full of lots of really great actionable tips. I figure we're in a season when we have some time to do things like work on our websites. So I think you're really going to enjoy this one. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken. And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable
businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it. And I can show you how. KB and Jessie Welcome to this can't be that hard. I am so excited for today's chat, I am so excited to introduce you to anyone out there who doesn't
know who you are. And to dive in on this super juicy topic that I think is super relevant this time of year when people are thinking about the things that they can do to really kind of in inject some energy into their business for the year to come. So welcome. Why don't you guys sort of jump in and introduce yourselves and and we'll go from there. Yeah,
of course, we're so excited to be here. So I'm KP I use she her pronouns. And I'm the founder of Empower creative. I founded the business back in 2020. And I like to say that I'm a bit of an unexpected entrepreneur, which is our other Rockstar podcasts name just because I like kind of stumbled
into it. And, you know, I started out in social media management, then I ended up stumbling into doing graphic design, which is what I have my degree in and then I ended up finding website design and completely fell in love because all through college my dream was to work in publishing. So I've always been a huge layout nerd and my favorite thing about websites is that they're just interactive layouts. Absolutely.
I love that and I have to say I'm just gonna like, jump in for a second and say that I absolutely love the name of your podcast to the extent that when I heard it, I was like, Oh man, I should have snack that one. You know that like that sort of imitation is
the highest form of flattery. I feel like so many of us as creatives are sort of Unexpect Did entrepreneurs write it is a it's one of those things where like, you're good at something, you enjoy something, and then all of a sudden you realize, like, Oh, I could build a business out of this. And then that path unfolds. Awesome, Jesse.
Yeah, so I am Jesse, I use she her pronouns. And I'm kind of the web developer, project manager, catch all for everything that KP doesn't love doing in the business. So I actually started last, I mean, April of 2022, I was doing a regular customer service job working from home, didn't love, it wasn't really enjoying anything. And KP was taking off with the business and had a lot of products coming in. So I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna do it, I'm gonna quit, I'm gonna go into this.
And hopefully it works and kind of took the leap into doing it, I had never done anything with website design, design, in general, really, we do a lot of blogging, I'd never done blogging before. It was really just a big leap of faith and hoping that it would work out. And you know, now, I absolutely love what I do. I think it's amazing, I get to kind of bring in, I have a psychology background. That's what I got my degree. And that's what I was
planning on doing. And so now I kind of get to bring that joy of helping others into website design and giving them a website that they love, and that works for them, and that they're proud to kind of show off to their friends and send to their clients and everything like that. So
cool. Yeah, I mean, and again, sort of the unexpected piece of it. I also have a background in psychology along with cultural anthropology, and I'm always laughing about how those two degrees are good for nothing, or, and everything. So you know, I do think that there's a way to parlay what you learn with that into just about anything that
you're going to do. Okay, so let's get into all things web design, but sort of more specifically, I guess, I don't want to say all things web design, I really want to talk about the thing that you guys talk about a lot that really piqued my interest and made you just made me want to invite you onto the show is this idea. Anybody who's listened to me talk for a long time has heard me talk about how important it is to make real contact with clients. I always encourage
people to get on the phone. And I get a lot of pushback because a lot of creatives and you know, business people, I suppose, in general are a little reluctant to get on the phone because of this potential for someone saying no, right? There's the
rejection factor. And you have this sort of promise or this thing that you talked about a lot where it, it is not, you can actually reduce the potential for someone to say no, pretty significantly before you ever get on the phone, you can set yourself up in such a way that that phone call just kind of is the cherry on top, you're you know, you're sealing the deal.
So today, I want to like talk break that down a little bit and talk about how one goes about doing that and how that communication starts on your website. Do you want to do you want to just kind of dive in on that?
Yeah, so I definitely think the first place it starts is your branding. So obviously, we're web designers. And we also do brand design. And you know, when people think about websites, like oh, I just need, you know, a logo or something. No, you need so much more than that, and so much more than that, to actually connect with people. So our biggest suggestion is, before you even jump into doing website, make
sure you have a brand. And this is going to be you know, the logo suite that's going to connect and actually show off your business in a good light, you don't want to have, you know, a super light and airy logo, but your editing style is dark and moody, people are gonna get confused, they're not going to really know who you are or what they're going to be getting
out of your photography. So you want a logo that matches, you want a color sweet, that matches the vibe that you're going to give off so that people get an understanding of what they're going to get before they even, you know, reach out to you or start to talk to you. And it's also about the brand voice. So you want to have a solid understanding of your tone of voice, the language that you want to use, even the words that you don't want to use and things that are going to maybe turn off
your ideal clients. So all of that is going to take place in the branding part before your website. But it also plays a big role in how that gets implemented into your website. Depending on if you get a professional brand Dawn, which is what we always suggest doing. You might also get brand elements that you can use throughout your website. And that's a huge plus a lot of people you know who do it on their own or no, maybe get a smaller package ended up with just colors and a font which is
great and it works for you. But adding those little elements, whether it's you know, little icons that you can add throughout or some of our clients have, you know, rainbows or little camera stickers that they can throw throughout the website. That adds a nice you know, personal tie It makes your
website interesting. And, you know, it helps people understand who you are the vibe that they're going to get when working with you what they can expect when they get to their session, whether it's, you know, a portrait session, wedding and engagement, a family session, whatever it might be. So branding is definitely the starting point. We don't suggest doing anything until you get your branding done.
Yeah, and that, I think when I first started learning about branding years ago, this was not something that came really naturally to me at all. I, I think that over the years, I've started to understand that branding is one of those things, it's almost like, you can be a great talented musician or singer or you can be totally tone deaf. And then there's like some sort
of spectrum in between. I don't, I wouldn't say that I was tone deaf, but I was definitely sort of unaware of how much impact those small things would have on my overall read of a business until I started trying to implement that for myself. And I would look at my website and be like, this isn't right, this isn't right. I'm like a definitely did a lot of DIY
branding over the years. And I think that when it's not something that you excel in getting that help and sort of, especially in the in the beginning, or maybe not right at the beginning, but a couple years into your business, as you've started to kind of get a sense of you know, who your ideal clients are and who you
really want to work with. And the kind of service you want to provide getting somebody else's third person input on how that can be translated visually, and aesthetically, and even come across to your point in your voice, like in the copy that you write it is very helpful. It's kind of like choosing your own portfolio. Right out of the bat, where you're so close to it, it's hard to see it with any
perspective. Yeah. But really, what that comes down to is conveying kind of this sense of your, your personality, right, which is, and not just your personality, but that brand personality. And I feel like if you don't convey your personality on your website, and your social media, all those kinds of things, it can just kind of fall flat, you run into a situation where somebody kind of says, oh, yeah, the photos look good. But I don't really know what that person is about.
Is that the way that you interpret that as well?
Yeah, absolutely. And it gets to the point where you want everything to connect, you want people to get a solid idea of who you are, regardless of where they find you. You don't want to have a you know, Instagram feed that's bright and colorful, but then your website is dark and moody and serious. But then you get on a discovery call and you're, you know, bubbly and full of full of life and energy. And they're like, I don't know which photographer I'm getting like what that is,
it just gets confusing. And then people, you know, might not book you just because they're concerned about what version of you they're going to get what version of the photographer, what actual product are they going to get. So you want to make sure that you know your website, your brand, your social media, every touchpoint that people have with your business, conveys the same message conveys the same idea, the same amount of personality, everything like that.
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like it really comes down to that element of trust, where if someone comes to your site sees all your stuff, and feels like they have a really clear sense of what to expect, then they know whether to move forward or not. So that yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So you've talked about colors and sort of light and airy versus dark and moody,
that sort of thing. But what are some other ways that somebody is able to inject that personality or add more personality maybe to their website, if they feel like their their website isn't conveying that. So
going off of the fact that you just mentioned trust, our next one is actually to make sure that you have brand photos of yourself throughout your website because while your brand can do a lot of the speaking for you at the end of the day, you are a photographer you are the value of your business people are hiring you and the work that you produce, so people need to know like who you are and one of the easiest ways to do that is to just do like a headshot swap with one of your friends like
maybe you can take some photos of them for their site and they can take some of you and if you have your brand and don't already try to wear like you know a nice shirt or you know like a hat or something in your brand color that then can very easily tie into the rest of your
site whenever you use it. And iPhone selfies or pictures that you know you took five to 10 years ago aren't just going to cut it really make sure that the photos that you have of yourself are just as professional as all the photos throughout your
website. And again that's really just going to help for when people finally get on that call with you and you know see you face to face they're almost going to feel like they've met you already because you've been on your website and it's totally fine to if you just have the photo of you you know on your about page or you know in one little section on your homepage, just really making sure that it is throughout your site is going to help you a lot.
I am not great about getting in front of the camera. I have some brand photos but I am definitely like that On the agenda for this year for me, but one thing that I really like to encourage people to do as well like is to take it to that next level, and get themselves on little videos that they put into their websites. And obviously, it's ideal if you can afford and sort of take the time
to do that, professionally. But I actually, and maybe you would argue with this, I feel like sometimes just true unscripted, or less scripted, little videos, short videos, like 15 to 30 seconds, where you're like, Hey, I'm Onna me, I know it's a really hard name to pronounce, it's on me like the end of economy or something, you know, along those lines, not only allows somebody to see you and see you moving in action, but also kind of gives them a sense of your literal voice, but you
know, your persona as it comes across.
Yeah, one of the way that we always encourage our clients to add personality to their site is through movement.
So adding videos, if they do, even, you know, behind the scenes videos, those can be with you know, the quality of iPhone cameras now should absolutely be, you know, iPhone footage of, if you have a second shooter or someone who's with you at a wedding or shoot, they can just take a little video of you actually directing people or doing your thing, or even just some like general B roll footage of things that you like, or match your brand vibe, you know, if you have a very beachy vibe,
having, you know, a background that's just kind of like waves and fits with your brand, presence. But it also adds that bit of movement, it adds interest, it keeps people scrolling, and they're like, oh, it's kind of cool. Like, let me see what else they have. So absolutely movement videos, little videos, introducing yourself a great for you know, your about page so that people can get a better idea. And some people like to take in content
differently, right. That's why we have some people who will listen to podcasts, some will read blog posts, some will go to a website. So if you have multiple forms of media that people can kind of get to know you, by on your website, like that's only going to add to the potential reach that you can have. And one of the other things that we love, is if you can get photo bursts when you get your pictures taken. And then just create a little gif of
you with those photo bars. Like those are always super fun, and people will love them. And it's really easy to do. It's simple. It's not like a heavy lift type of thing to add to your site. So it's a really quick and easy thing that can kind of add a little movement to your site, which helps keep the interest like I said, but it also just adds more personality, it gives people another way to get to know you and what you're like and what you might be like on the day when you have your
session. You know, if you're super energetic, and you know, give off that energy to kind of help keep your clients high energy during photoshoots. Because we definitely know, you know, we've done brand shoots that are all day. And by the end of the day, you're like, I'm exhausted like this is I'm struggling to like put on a happy face and seem like I'm
energetic. Right? Sure. So anything that you can kind of do to show your personality show what's your like, behind the scenes actually on the day is? Absolutely yes, on your website. Amazing
that? Yeah, that's a great idea. And I do I feel like we get sort of stuck in our own heads about, okay, well, I have this one photo that I like, I'm just going to put it in this one plays, but there are so many opportunities to kind of inject who you are. And it is it's such an important piece of someone hiring you, I think we rely so heavily, many of us rely so heavily on our portfolio work to kind of do the heavy lifting, but at the end of the day, there are a lot of really talented
photographers out there. And if you can connect with someone, you know, that's it's going to make it that much easier. So okay, so let's quickly review here we're talking. And you're gonna have to help me fill in the gaps. So we're talking about lots of photos, some potential for movement and photo video type stuff. Brand, a, like a well defined branded entity with all the associated pieces, logo, fonts, illustrations, and things like that. What am I missing, I feel like I just skipped
something. I
think that's all that we have right now. But we do have two more tips, trying to help add a little more personality. So going back to your about page because honestly, this is a page that a lot of the photographers that we've worked with have gotten to
struggle with. And you know, their old about page is a single paragraph with an image and that's it, your about page can be super important, and is a great way for people to get to know you because obviously if they click on it, they want to know more about you and your personality and not just the services that you offer. So when it comes to your about page, be sure you actually tell your story tell how you got into photography, why you got into photography, why you want to do
this. This is the like, key place to explain your why and that's what a lot of people are going to connect with. So make sure you actually explain that. And then to add a little bit more Fun into it. So it's not just maybe super serious or a lot of information. Our favorite thing to do is add you know, a fun fact section, talk about your favorite things, your favorite movie or TV show or coffee or things that you're
obsessed with right now. And you can update it throughout the year or every year or something like that. Not only does that give people kind of a look into your life behind the camera, but it also gives people something to connect with. So if you're, you know, say my favorite TV show is Parks and Rec. So you might be like, Oh, my God, my favorite show is Parks and Rec, like, let's talk about it. And you get a discovery call. And you talk about Parks and Rec and who your favorite character is
or something like that. And it gives you that connection. Because, you know, at the end of the day, like KP said, You are the value of your business. You know, there are 1000s of photographers out there that are all going to take a picture, yes, there are going to be different qualities depending on who it is. But they're all going to take a picture. So you need to show why you're different what what you bring that's different from this next person. And that's you and your
personality. So you need to make sure that that shines through and you know little things about sections, you can even do business facts. So some of our clients have done you know how many weddings they've shot, or their most fun wedding or the, you know, reception song that they love or something like that, just to kind of add, you know, a little bit of touch and a little more information that's not directly, here's the services that I offer,
right? It's almost like being at a cocktail party, right? If you stand in the corner and sort of quietly wait for someone to come over and talk that may happen eventually. But if you're wearing like a really funny hat, or something like that, you're essentially inviting someone to come over and be like, Hey,
that's a really funny hat. And it's just kind of a conversation starter, doesn't have to be anything, you know, it doesn't have to be a funny hat, it can be a t shirt, saying something that you know, means something to you, I don't know, there's all kinds of ways to do it. And as long as they're authentic to you, and it's something that you will connect with that person on, it's going to attract the right people and probably turn the wrong people away. So it's a double win. As far as I'm
concerned. That's amazing. Let's go back to the about page, the construction of your story. I think that that's something that a lot of people get really hung up on. It's like that's a painful process, writing your about me page. And you know, it's like you can over obsess about it. And once once someone gets it done, oftentimes they're like, Okay, that's it. That's who I am for the rest of my career. I never want to change that page ever again, when you guys are working with a client
on building their about page? Do you have them right that do you help with the writing process? Do you have like a recommended length or a format? What tips can you give us for about page other than to go into your story and to include your fun facts? Sorry?
It's such a good question. So when it comes to constructing about pages for our clients, we do one of two things. So we either have them try to hire a copywriter, or we do have basically kind of like a guideline for every you know, solid page on your website that most people are going to have including the about page. And on that about page, we do kind of break down like at the beginning like that is where you know, you can very briefly introduce
yourself. And then maybe you have like another block where that is where you would tell your story. And we do try to tell them you know, keep it between two to three paragraphs if you can, because you don't want it to be too long, we want to be able to break it up so that you know someone on their phone isn't going to be like that's a big wall of text that I'm scrolling through, right.
And then that's where we also kind of give them like other ideas too, because one of the quickest ways that you can actually kind of showcase your personality without saying it yourself as well is to have testimonials throughout your site to try not to make them you know, super long. I know you probably get like incredible, really long testimonials. But if you can pull out like you know, two to three sentences from those testimonials and put them on your site so that they're
very skippable. That's also a really easy block that you can add on to your about page that just you know quickly speaks exactly to who you are in somebody else's words as well. Yeah, absolutely.
I think we all really enjoy the long email or the long letter from a client where they're like, thank you so much. Let me tell you all these different ways that that session was amazing, are you You know, we are so deeply in gratitude to you for what you did at our wedding detail detail detail. We love that but I think that what's best on a website I mean, two to three sentences, I would say almost max right? Like if you can get that one heavy
hitter, like single line. You know, I sobbed all day after looking at our photos or hopefully in a good way. Maybe that's a bad one. But yeah, something along those lines like it really stands out and can can pack a punch amazing. Okay, so let's move into kind of what the the obstacles are when it comes to photographers who are trying to work on their websites other than writing their about pages.
Where do you see people making mistakes and And what pointers Can you give them to kind of bring them back on track.
So I think the biggest mistake that we see with people who are trying to DIY and specifically add more personality into their site is doing way too much. So you know, we say add movement and movement is great, but too much movement is overwhelming, and people aren't going to know where to
look. So if you're going to, you know, choose to add movement somewhere, maybe pick one or two things, maybe you add gifts, every once in a while on the page to add a little bit of movement, or, you know, certain types of headings, you have them slide in from the side. So it adds a little bit of that interest. But it doesn't necessarily detract from what they're actually reading, right?
A lot of times we'll see photographers, or just, I mean, in reality, business owners in general, be like, Okay, I need to add movement. So let me add movement to every single canvas, let me add something, and then you're just staring at it. And you're like, I don't even know where to look, you don't want to draw people's attention away from what you want them to pay
attention to. So being very conscious about where you add movement, and, you know, looking at a canvas and saying is movement going to make this canvas better? Or is it going to take away from the point of the canvas, if it's going to take away from the point, don't do it, what's on the canvas is great. And that's what people need to pay attention to and understand. So kind of keep it
at that. And, you know, another thing that we see often and we specifically do with our clients is making sure that every call to action button is the same color, it's a super quick and easy way to kind of draw people's attention. And if you don't have this on your site, right now, it should be really quick to switch. So it's a very low lift update to make, but picking the brightest color or the color that stands out the most in your color palette, and make that your button color.
Because what's that that is going to do is one it's going to stand out. So people are going to notice the buttons. But two, it's also going to train people that when they see that color, they're supposed to take action. So they're supposed to click on a button, they're supposed to do something. So you want to make sure that you have that there. And that it points to your main
website goal. If your main website goal is to book clients, you should have a lot of buttons throughout your site that go to your contact page, because that's what you want them to book, you know if it's, if you're fully booked out right now, and you want people to join your newsletter so that they can kind of stay in the loop and be informed or notified when you
know more sessions open up. You want to make sure your buttons lead to signing up for your newsletter or downloading the freebie that then captures their email, something like that. So I think the biggest thing that we see is kind of going overboard and like to trying to go like too hard too fast. So just take it, take it slow, take it one step at a time, kind of start at a lower point out a little bit. And then if you're like, Okay, I think it could use a little
more, add a little bit. And once you're like, Okay, that's it, I still get the point of the site. I still know where to go. I can still digest everything super easy. But it's visually interesting. That's when you know to stop. Yeah,
interesting. not overwhelming. Yeah, exactly. And asking, I would think you know, a friend or you know, somebody else in the industry to take a peek and give you their feedback, obviously can be really useful there too. You just have to pick your, your honest friends not you're like, oh, it looks amazing. Honey
moms. That's so good. Okay, so if somebody wants to start kind of on this path is like, Yep, I'm gonna sit down and do an audit and update my website, what are some action items for them, like this week that they can that they can tackle,
I would say first sit down and write out your website goal. So like I said, for this, it can be different for everyone. It can be different for different seasons. So maybe, you know, leading up to wedding season, you're trying to push weddings, but then during wedding season, you don't really want to push weddings, you want to push, you know, portraits that people are going to be taking in November for their Christmas cards, or whatever it might be. So write down what your current website
goal is. And then go through your site. And make sure that everything on your site is leading to that goal. So like I said, if it's to get in touch with you make sure you have contact buttons on every single page. The biggest thing is make sure that every single page has a different avenue to go to at the bottom. You don't want any page to dead end. So if you have a page that you know, you get through, maybe the bottom block is a testimonial and then it's just your footer, that's a dead
end. You want some sort of CTA there that you know says check out my services or hit the contact button or go to the blog to read about stuff. Something else that keeps them on your site and keep some kind of clicking. So I would write down your main website goal and make sure that your current sight is actually pushing people towards that goal and directing them there. And like you said, that's
a great thing to do. If you have an honest friend, you can say, hey, go on this site look through it, what do you think the goal of the website is? And where does it kind of lead you and where do you naturally go, if it's not naturally going in the direction you want them to go to, you might need to update that and kind of adjust some things to make sure that it does go where you want it to go. And then make sure that every single page has some sort of call to
action at the bottom. So you don't end up at a dead end minus I'll preferences honest, you know, your terms and conditions, privacy policy page, those those can be dead ends, that's totally fine. And, yeah, Contact Page obviously can be a dead, like, that's fine. But the main pages that people are going to visit, you want a CTA at the bottom. And then I would say, going through and making sure that everything, all of the images on your site are up to date, and in the style that you're currently
shooting. Because sometimes style can evolve, or you can, you know, level up, we're working with a lot of photographers who are kind of in, you know, the mid level wedding market, but want to break into the high end wedding market. So you want to make sure that whoever your ideal client is, the images on the site, speak to them, and kind of speak to the story and the emotions and the feelings that you want
to give them. So if you're putting out you know, you'll get super emotional images that you can look back. And you know, remember the feeling of that moment when it was taken. You want to have photos that feel very emotional. And you're like, oh, I can understand that. Like, if that was me, I would definitely remember that moment. And like feel those feelings again. So do an audit of your of your images on your site and make sure that they are actually working for you. And they're up
to date. And if you can add new portfolio pieces, absolutely do it. I know that's a huge ask for photographers, because you're obviously always taking pictures and always doing sessions and always doing weddings. So there's probably a billion photos that you could put on your site. But try and kind of go through, pick the best ones, keep it short and simple. Galleries realistically shouldn't be any more than 30 to 50 images after that people are
going to stop scrolling. So if you have longer galleries than that, maybe go through and try and pick out the best ones that you have. So it's not just endless scrolling of images. But yeah, I would say figure out your website goal, make sure everything's pointing to that make sure no page and just at the footer, and make sure all of the images are actually working for you and speaking to the client that you are trying to attract love
that there's this phrase, I think it's from like, Well, you said you were interested in publishing, I think this comes from like literature, but it's the whole Kill your darlings. Like, you can't get so emotionally attached to images. And again, I've also been there 1000 times, where I'm like, Oh, but I just this was such a fun moment. It's like the new person who just landed on your website has no, you know, emotional investment in this client or this this
moment. So unless it comes across visually, instantly, that one goes out. I think that that is super important. Do you guys have specific tips for frequency of updating your website? Is it better to do it like every time that you have a new session or website or excuse me session or wedding, you go and pick you know, your favorite image and switch that out with one that currently is on your website? Or would you do that monthly or quarterly, I would
say that it's really going to depend on your schedule. So what we tend to recommend is, at the least every six months, I mean, obviously quarterly is going to be the best option, especially if you like also go and you know, take like some incredible photos. And you're like I need to put these in my portfolio right now. Like I really want to attract more
people like this. But realistically, I would say at the least every six months, if you can like even just put like a little date on your calendar that like you know, every six months especially on like this, especially like this specific date in the spring in the fall, maybe you go in and just swap out the photos.
Yeah, I haven't updated my photography website in a long time, because I'm not actively trying to get photography clients right now. But what I used to do is I would have my workflow when I was going through Lightroom, you know, like finishing up an edit and delivering a client their gallery, I would actually, I had a tag in Lightroom for my like portfolio piece, the image or maybe two images from each session that I thought was best. And I would put those in a
separate portfolio folder. And I just had Yeah, quarterly on my calendar to go in. And of course, by the time the quarter rolled around, if I was pulling one or two images from every session, it would be too many like I didn't use all of them. But the those were like it was easier to look at that set than to try and look at all the photos I had taken in a quarter. So if that's helpful for anybody out there,
oh, that's that's a really good idea. And honestly, that's our biggest hurdle with our photographers is they're like, I don't know how To make this smaller, like I have so many images, and they're all amazing, and they are all amazing, like we're not saying that they're not, they're all incredible images. But sometimes it's just a little too much to put on your site. So that's a, that's a great tip for kind of figuring out a way to add more images without it being super
overwhelming to you. Because I feel like that's the issue that a lot of people run into, right is they're like, I don't know where to start. There's too many images, I can't pick, they're just gonna stay how they are.
Yeah, that same advice goes in every direction. I love that you brought up capping your portfolios. I don't, I don't like for whatever reason, I've always kept mine at no more than 35 because I'm like, nobody needs to see more than 35 portfolio images to decide whether they like my style or not. And when you give somebody that sort of like infinite scroll, it becomes like, social media, right? Where we're just like, scroll, scroll, scroll, like, No, I want you to
go click the Contact button. So all of these have been such
amazing suggestions and ideas. I know that if anybody out there listening, and I'm sure that this is the case is in the process of either building or editing, revising, relaunching their websites Do you can you share a little bit more about how they can come see your work I love on your website, the website, links that you give of your you know, your clients, your portfolio, I feel like oftentimes, web designers will be like here, let me show you sort of the mock up version of a
website that you can actually go play on the website. And so I really enjoyed those. And I love the websites that you guys do. So tell everybody where they can find you. Oh,
thank you. You can find us over on Instagram at Apoc creative I'd say that's where we're most active. There's also our website and creative.com. And then we also have the podcast which is the unexpected entrepreneur podcast. Awesome.
Such a great name. All right, wonderful. Well, thank you again for coming on and and until next time. Well, that's it for this week's episode of This can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode, along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard.com/learn If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a
review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.