If you’ve ever scrolled Instagram and found yourself gazing longingly at someone else’s perfect-looking life, wondering why you don’t have your ish together like they do, this episode is for you. Given that I’m always talking about systems and streamlining and automating, I don’t doubt that some people might imagine that I’ve got it all figured out, particularly when it comes to business. Well - spoiler alert - I don’t... And I really don’t want you to think I do. We all live messy lives, and so...
Feb 08, 2022•15 min•Ep. 145
For years, you’ve heard people talk about the two main choices you had for running a photography business: in-person sales and all-inclusive sales. Both of those models can be successful if they’re managed right, but both also have some pretty significant drawbacks - all-inclusive photographers are leaving (big) money on the table and giving their clients a less complete experience, and IPS photographers spend A LOT of time and energy on the sale part of every session, limiting their ability to ...
Feb 01, 2022•26 min•Ep. 144
You’ve heard me talk about Bluebird clients before - those ideal clients who love your work, happily pay your prices, let you do your thing artistically, then sing your praises all over town. You may also have heard me talk about snake clients - the ones who drain your time and energy, complain about your prices, micromanage your work, then top it all off with bad reviews. This week on the podcast, my guest Aisling O’Brien is introducing a brilliant new mascot to the lineup - the Possum Client. ...
Jan 25, 2022•25 min•Ep. 143
Websites can be so much work: updating our photos, writing copy, figuring out layout and structure, trying to understand and work on SEO... and the list goes on. Given all that work, is really even necessary for photographers to have a website in this day and age? Carolina Guzik from The Tog Republic joins me on the podcast this week to share her insights on why the answer to that question is a resounding YES. We talk about what the necessary components of a website are, and how a website is nev...
Jan 18, 2022•53 min•Ep. 142
As a solopreneur, it’s easy to forget that the money our clients pay us isn’t what we ultimately make - that number gets whittled down by business expenses. And too many solopreneurs just take whatever’s leftover at the end of the month or year and call it a day. But I think you should set a target salary and build it into your pricing (it’s IMPORTANT to make money in your business! That’s why we work!!!), so today on the podcast, I’m talking about how you should go about deciding what to pay yo...
Jan 11, 2022•29 min
Here are some of my favorite moments from this past year, including spotlights from some of my guests who came on and shared their real world stories, their struggles, and their insights and how those things have impacted their careers as photographers. LINKS: Simple Sales Blueprint Masterclass Episode 80 with Sabrina Gebhardt Episode 92 with Amy Sanusi Episode 125 with Elke Van den Ende Episode 127 with Mary Otanez Episode 129 with Colie James Episode 131 with Melissa Arlena Episode 133 with Ka...
Jan 04, 2022•25 min
When I put podcast episodes together, my goal is always give you something valuable and actionable that you can use in your business. What I love about interview episodes is that new voices and perspectives bring valuable insights to ME as well! After 68 episodes in 2021, I figured we could all use a refresher - a best of the best, if you will - so I put together a quick tour of some of the highlights from my interviews in 2021. Whether you’re a brand new listener or have been around since the b...
Dec 28, 2021•29 min•Ep. 139
With the new year right around the corner (can you believe it?), it’s the perfect time to start thinking about your goals for 2022. But if you’re like most people, yearly goals can get lost in the flotsam and jetsam of day to day life. So today I want to talk to you about six ways you can identify what goals you’d like to achieve for next year and the best way to do it. Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources. Join o...
Dec 21, 2021•21 min
In order to create a successful path forward, sometimes we must first look back and take stock on our past. And this is the perfect time of year for that introspective exercise. In this episode I share with you the 6 areas of business I examine every year; because I’ve learned even the tiniest bit of insight, when harnessed, can snowball into big wins for the next year. Register here for January Jumpstart Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of A...
Dec 14, 2021•24 min
Henry Ford once said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.’” I hear a lot of photographers who feel stuck doing or NOT doing, selling or NOT selling certain things in their businesses based largely on what their clients tell them they want or what they see other photographers around them doing. And as much as I know that it’s important to keep an eye on the market and to listen to what your clients tell you, today I want to talk about how the key to your s...
Dec 07, 2021•16 min•Ep. 136
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 multipl...
Nov 30, 2021•46 min•Ep. 135
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...
Nov 23, 2021•12 min•Ep. 134
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 sho...
Nov 16, 2021•33 min•Ep. 133
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, ...
Nov 09, 2021•23 min•Ep. 132
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 ...
Nov 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 131
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...
Oct 26, 2021•26 min•Ep. 130
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 b...
Oct 19, 2021•33 min•Ep. 129
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 desig...
Oct 12, 2021•21 min•Ep. 128
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 fo...
Oct 05, 2021•52 min•Ep. 127
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 -...
Sep 28, 2021•32 min•Ep. 126
Do you ever wish you could raise your prices but fear that your local market can’t or won’t support what you need to charge? If so, this interview with Elke Van den Ende is a must-listen. Elke is a wedding and portrait photographer is based in Western Europe, where most portrait photographers charge just a few hundred pounds for their services. But when Elke ran her numbers and saw that those numbers wouldn’t work for her, she decided to go out on a limb and charge more - close to five times mor...
Sep 21, 2021•47 min•Ep. 125
I recently polled a big group of photographers asking them what three words or phrases they would use to describe their feelings about money. The responses were overwhelmingly negative, and filled with words like stress, shame, scarcity, guilt, and insecurity. And maybe it seems that since I teach photographers about how to price and sell their work, and since I come from an in-person sales background, and since I openly talk about the fact that my photo business makes six figures, maybe it’s ea...
Sep 14, 2021•28 min•Ep. 124
Back in Episode 117, I shared that I had decided the time was right to switch from dSLR to mirrorless, and that I was in the process of researching my camera options. I decided to share that research and decision-making process on the podcast in the hopes that it may provide a less techy, more practical approach to gear decisions in general and mirrorless cameras specifically. Although it took me a bit longer than I’d originally anticipated, I’ve made a decision and am ready to share it (along w...
Sep 07, 2021•42 min•Ep. 123
What is going through someone’s head when they hire a photographer? Sure, they need to like the photos, and yes, they need to be able to afford the pricetag, but assuming both of those things are true, what makes someone choose one photographer over another? There are ten major drivers that motivate purchasing decisions, and once you know which one(s) are most relevant to your ideal clients, you can build a business and a message that will set you apart and make you the only option they want to ...
Aug 31, 2021•27 min•Ep. 122
We’ve all seen the thread: a photographer gets an inquiry, sends off a response, then gets an angry response from this would-be client who is shocked and outraged at the prices they’ve just been presented with. These posts often get dozens or even hundreds of responses, and some of them, inevitably, push the original poster to “educate the client.” Today, I’m here to tell you that trying to educate that person - at least at that point in the game - is an exercise in futility. Instead, I want to ...
Aug 24, 2021•16 min•Ep. 121
Three years ago, fine art portrait photographer and body positivity advocate Amanda Thorson got an idea for a photo book. As of two weeks ago, that idea officially became a reality when she crossed the goal line on her Kickstarter. The photos are made, the book is designed, the funding is there… now all that’s left is to go to print! I chatted with Amanda about the whole process - what’s fun, what’s hard, what she’s learned and - of course - how much it actually costs to self-publish an art book...
Aug 17, 2021•48 min•Ep. 120
I have long preached phone calls and videos as important tools in any photographers communication arsenal, but I’ve never been able to perfectly describe the difference between when a text or email is appropriate vs. when you should pick up the phone or hit record on your camera… until I heard an interview with Juliet Funt. Funt is the author of a book called A Minute to Think, and while many of the book’s topics sounded interesting to me, it was a short aside in the interview that caught my ear...
Aug 10, 2021•18 min•Ep. 119
When it comes to email marketing, do you ever wonder what your emails should say? How often you should send them? How you can grow a small (or non-existent) list? How you can tell whether what you’re writing is resonating with your audience? Or even just why you should bother with email marketing at all? Then this episode is for you! LINKS Flodesk Flodesk University Flodesk’s Facebook Community Quiet Like Horses (Sobrina’s content strategy site) can be found at http://www.quietlikehorses.com/ Re...
Aug 03, 2021•44 min•Ep. 118
This is Part 1 of a two part series. In this episode, I interview Gabriel Biderman from B&H. We talk through the general arguments for mirrorless and the more specific nuances of what I want and need as a family photographer. Whether you’re a mirrorless fan already or just casually considering a switch from DSLR, I hope you’ll find this series educational and entertaining. LINKS: B&H Camera Resources: New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie'...
Jul 27, 2021•52 min•Ep. 117
A well-done photography client prep guide is a thing of beauty: it is a fantastic, professional way to represent your brand to your new clients, it helps reassure them that you know what you're doing and are going to be a trustworthy guide through the process, and it helps you avoid lots of time spent answering and addressing common questions and concerns. But putting a good guide together is also a HUGE investment of time and energy, and it seems like a waste that it only gets seen by those peo...
Jul 20, 2021•22 min•Ep. 116
