The Every Durn Day List For Your Photography Business

I used to haphazardly go about my day. Whatever was most important at the time was what got done. I’d get to the end of my day with absolutely no idea what I had accomplished. The only thing I was certain of was that I WAS TIRED!

Have you been there? Letting your day run you instead of the other way around? The phone rings. I answered it. Email chimes with a question from a client. Off in that direction I went. A photographer friend needed help designing a marketing piece. I’d drop everything to help.

Finally I got tired of being tired and scatterbrained here at the studio. I knew something had to change, so I made my Every Durn Day List! It’s my very technical title for the list of things I absolutely have to get done to call it a successful day!

Brainstorming, I broke my day up into broad tasks I handle every day. Or tasks that SHOULD be handled everyday! And I put them into big chunks of time on my calendar, aka time blocking ;)

So let’s get into it . . . first things first. Health.

Health

It’s a priority. It has to come first. If I’m not healthy and feeling good, then I am no good for anybody - my family, myself or my clients. So I try to get a smoothie in every morning so at least I know I am getting in some good nutrients, and I try to do something physical every day. This might not happen in the morning. It just depends on my schedule. I love a good long walk / run in the evenings with a podcast going.

Mindset

Getting my head straight and staying focused on the big picture is tough for me. I’m not gonna lie. I see something shiny, new and exciting . . . I’m gonna chase after it! I love to dream all the big things and design all the projects. Follow through is an issue for me, which is why I ultimately hired an assistant to check off all the little parts of my big visions I left behind!

So this is what I decided to do. Now I review my quarterly goals and big picture strategy for the year every morning. I have a Trello board with those and I also keep them posted on a dry erase board right in my sites in front of my desk. They are staring right at me ALL DAY LONG! This helps me put my blinders on and stay focused towards what I’ve said was important to me.

Marketing

I heard once before that the smartest thing we could do for our businesses when it comes to social media is to create before we consume. I took that advice to heart and it has made the biggest impact on my business. We have to market EVERY DURN DAY to keep clients rolling in. If we only market during the slow times then there are going to be a whole lot more slow times eventually. By creating before we consume we naturally do what is best for our businesses. When we let other voices in our heads those messages infiltrate our own, and we end up missing the mark. And if you’re anything like me, you get caught up in the good ol’ comparison trap. Ugh. Anybody else?

So before I start scrolling Instagram or Facebook I go ahead and make sure I’ve posted to my own social media for the day. I get it done and out there in the world! Then I can continue on with my happy morning stalking, umm inspiration.

Time Blocking

After marketing comes my time blocks. I try to work ON MY BUSINESS before working IN MY BUSINESS each day. That keeps me moving toward those goals I set. So I am usually concentrating on a current project I have going on at the time. Then it’s on to admin work to session post processing to client meetings and all the other hats we have to wear! But whatever it is, it is getting all done at the same time. I can be so much more productive when I work on ONE THING instead of task jumping all over the place! Shut down the browser windows, put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and give it a try! You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in one sitting.

Client Communication

I used to check my voicemail, email, Facebook and Instagram messages first thing each morning and get everything handled. Not bad customer service, huh? No! Not at all. But guess what? None of it was ever really an emergency. By lunch time I was frazzled and lost as to what to do the rest of the day. You see, I am sharpest and most creative first thing in the morning. I need to get my focused work done then because after lunch it can easily go downhill for me. Maybe that’s just me getting old! But either way, I needed to create a way to get my focused work time done so I simply flipped my schedule. Now I only check voicemail and email after lunch. And I do it all at one time. That’s one of my time blocks actually. This one simple thing has been such a game changer for me!

I also try to set aside a little time in the afternoons to nurture relationships. This might mean writing welcome or thank you notes or checking facebook and instagram to see what is going on in the lives of my clients. You can learn a lot that way! Here’s the thing though. This is not mindless scroll time. This is intentional engagement time! Always go to your social media with purpose. That’s a story for another day and something we go over EXACTLY HOW TO DO inside Insta Secrets :)

BONUS! Prep For Tomorrow

I’m a sucker for a bonus, so here ya go y’all! A successful morning starts the night before. Have you ever heard that? Well, if not you have now! Believe it because it is so true! Coming into the studio office each morning knowing exactly what needs to be done is key for a productive day. Do things always go as planned? Heck no! But at least I have a fighting chance. I set myself up for success in a few different ways. At the end of each work day I will glance over my Google calendar to see what’s coming up. Then I look over my Trello boards and calendar side by side to decide when I can do outstanding tasks. I name my top 3 tasks for the next day and block out time to make those happen. If I get more done, great! If not, that’s ok. I can feel accomplished knowing I got those top 3 done. Be sure to check out this blog post where I talk about how to use Trello for EVERYTHING! I seriously can’t live without it.

Here’s a quick recap on my every day list in my photography business:

• Health: Always first!

  • Drink a smoothie

  • Move my body (running, yoga, weights, resistance training, etc)

• Mindset: Get focused.

  • Review My Goals / Big Picture Strategy

  • Review Today's Top 3 List

• Marketing: Create before I consume.

  • Instagram Post

  • Facebook Post

  • Instagram Story (3 times a day)

• Time Blocking

  • Current Project first (to push my business forward towards one of those goals

  • Then the other blocks: content creation, education, admin, post production, etc.

• Client Communication: Always after lunch.

  • Return Voicemails / Call Leads

  • Answer Email

  • Client / Prospect Engagement (write notecards / check Facebook & Instagram - with intention)

• Plan For The Next Day: Set myself up for success tomorrow.

  • Review Calendar

  • Create Top 3 List

So what’s on your list? Do you have one? What are you doing in your senior photography studio to make each day successful and to keep driving your business forward? I’d love to know! Am I missing something? :)

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How To Get The Most Out Of Your Photography Conference

My head was spinning.  I had so much to get done.  My eyes were tired and I felt like the world was moving faster than it really should.  My family had missed me. My kids needed me, and there was so much housework to get done.  But I had to make all of these changes and NOW!

This was my typical story after returning home from a photography conference.  I felt the need to change absolutely EVERYTHING in my business because if it worked for the speaker on stage then it had to work for me too, right?!  WRONG!  

I would frantically take notes and try to implement all of it when I got back home.  I was exhausted from chasing after success.

I’ve learned to slow down over the years, to take bits and pieces to apply to my senior photography business and to just let the rest go.  My approach to getting the most out of a photography conference has changed over the years. I’ve done it the wrong way, and I’ve learned to do it the right way.  Creating an intentional strategy around learning and getting the most out of a conference has made a huge difference for me! So I’d love to share with you guys some tips on what to expect from a photography conference and how to implement what you’ve learned when you get back home.

What To Expect From A Senior Photography Conference

Well, they are all different, especially these days with a lot of them being done virtually.  Let me start with that. Some conferences are more about lighting, some are all about portfolio building and some are more about business education.  I tend to enjoy the ones more focused on business.  

Here’s why:  Portfolio building is fun.  Really it can be a blast getting to shoot with other passionate senior photographers! Photographing new subjects styled just right can get the creativity flowing, but those images do not always fit the style of your typical clients. And hopefully this doesn’t sound too harsh, but they tend to stick out like a sore thumb on websites and social media if they aren’t the way you normally shoot.  It’s easy to see in a body of work which images are your own and which ones were created someplace else and styled by somebody else.

This next part is said in love . . . Our clients are hiring us for what we can offer them on a daily basis. So just be careful with building a portfolio of images that you cannot deliver on to the clients in your own area.  I’m not saying don’t go to those conferences or to not participate in styled shoots. Please hear me loud and clear on that! This is just some tiny advice to be careful about what you are posting vs what you can deliver.

Ok, back to it! My all time favorite senior photography conference is SYNC. And this year I just happen to be speaking at it. WHAT?!! Yep. I sure am and I couldn’t be more excited! It’s March 5th - 8th, 2021 in Destin, Florida.

You can find out more about it here and how you can either attend in person or choose the virtual option for this year.

I’ve been every single year but one (and that was only because I was on bedrest with a rough pregnancy).  Dang kids. Kidding!!! SYNC is family. It is all inclusive so you don’t have to pick and choose which classes to attend. It is 3 solid days of learning and EVERYONE is so hands on and helpful.  While it is not a portfolio building conference you can still find groups shooting every day all over the resort. Those are fun to pop in and out of. And lots of people travel in early and stay late because it is in Destin, FL! Who doesn’t love a little extra vacation time at the beach doing what we love?!

Buying the plane tickets and booking the hotel rooms aren’t the only investments we are making in our education when we decide to go to a photography conference.  Besides the money we are actually investing our time - our life really. It takes several days away from our families and business as usual, so we want to make sure we are investing wisely and getting something back that’s worth that investment.  So let’s talk about that!

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Photography Conference:

First things first . . .

If you bought virtual tickets to a conference PLEASE treat that investment the same way you would an in person conference. Block off your calendar, grab some snacks, caffeine & your notebook. Don’t put it off because you won’t come back to it. Buddy up with a few photographers online and make it a watch party! Maybe you could even create a group text to share ideas or ask questions back and forth. The worst thing you could do is say you’ll get to it soon. If you’re anything like me, you won’t.

Prepare Beforehand

Take a look at the agenda, the speakers and their topics.  Jot down some questions ahead of time about the things you are interested in so that you will specifically listen for those topics to come up.  This has been a really big help for me instead of going into a class blind.

Set Conference Goals

Understand why you are going and get intentional with your learning.  Make a list of the things you want to get out of the conference. Go ahead and have some questions written down.  You will be more intentional about who you connect with, who you sit by, who you go to lunch with, the conversations you have, whether you spend your time in small groups discussing a particular aspect of your business or going out to watch a lead photographer work with a model.  

Filter out the ideas that don’t matter as much right now in your business and life so that you can focus on the ones that do matter and will make a difference for you.

If you go into a conference with intention you are more likely to feel that it was a success afterwards and that it was worth your investment - in time and in dollars.

Creating A Note Taking System:

This is a game changer.  I use to be the crazy person frantically writing down every word and not really comprehending them.  I wasn’t present with the speakers or fully soaking their message in because I was too focused on not missing anything.  When I realized how much of a problem this was and that I was actually hindering my learning I created a note taking system for conferences.

I like to use symbols in my notes to make it easy and memorable.  This can be done digitally with emojis on your phone or you can hand write them.  I still tend to be a paper and pen kind of girl.

Using symbols in your notes will jog your memory when you go back over them later.

Let me make sure you understood this from earlier and don’t make the same mistakes I made . . . 

Do NOT write down everything.  Do NOT take pictures of every slide. 

You won’t go back to those and those images will just be taking up space on your phone.  Focus on the meat of the message instead of trying to capture every word and slide.  

Again, you want to be intentional here.  If you know why you are at the conference and what you and your business most needs right now, then you will not be overwhelmed with mountains of notes when you get back home.

Here are the symbols I use in my conference note taking and what they mean:

• Question Mark - These are questions I need to spend some time on later.  Sometimes there are deep questions that a speaker will ask that you really need to think about but don’t have time in the middle of a conference to do that.  Those questions can be powerful, and you don’t want to forget them.  

• ASAP - These are First Priority Tasks when I get back home.  These are things that I absolutely need to do RIGHT AWAY that could potentially be BIG THINGS for my business.  I want these to stand out and not get lost in all of the notes.  

• Lightbulb - These are great ideas that I want to do at some point.  You could use a star or asterisk too - whatever you want really. They’re your notes!

• Book - Speakers usually mention great books that they have read.  I am a big reader so I absolutely love when they do. I will either jot down the title and author in my notes or go ahead and add it to my Amazon cart for later.  Yep. I totally do that.

• SM - Oh my goodness, the social media ideas that come up when you’re around a bunch of creative people, right?!  If I hear something from the stage that makes me think of a great story or something I could share I will jot it down with “SM” beside it for later. 

• Brackets - If I have time right away I will write down a quick summary to share with my team members when I get home.  This isn’t always possible right after a class, but I try while it’s fresh on my mind.

What To Do After A Photography Conference:

You’re on top of the world when you leave the conference.  You are full of ideas and feel like you can take on the world!  And then you get back home to the chaos of everyone missing and needing you.  This is great, right?! Yes it is! You are LOVED! But if you don’t organize what you’ve learned immediately IT WON’T HAPPEN. 

You’ll find that notebook 4 months later and feel like a complete failure. I know. I’ve done it.

So here’s what I do.  If at all possible I will stay an extra day after the conference is over to decompress and really focus on organizing my notes.  Generally that doesn’t happen though because . . . kids. Taking advantage of the car ride or flight home has helped here though.  Whatever you do, just try really hard to find a little bit of time to organize your notes BEFORE you walk in the door at home.  

Blocking a full day off from work when you get back home instead of heading right back into it is vital too.  I know this is tough to do because voicemails, emails and client work has backed up while you were away. But it is so worth it to set that time aside to create an action plan.

Organizing & Summarizing Your Notes:

First, take pictures of your notes and store them in a notebook in Evernote (or whatever digital file system you like).  This is great for referencing later. You may not need something right now, but in 6 months you just might. I like to save these by date / conference name / speaker (ex: 030521_SYNC_SpeakerName).

Ok, now that they are saved you can dive in to create an action plan for all the things you learned!

Here’s a downloadable Conference Notes Summary Worksheet to help with that and how I use it :) 

• ASAP Column - top 10 RIGHT NOW action items to accomplish within the next month

• Next In Line - the rest of the items I’d really like to accomplish this year in my business (lightbulb notes)

• Key Ideas - the key things / big picture ideas I want to remember going forward in my business

• Inspirational Quotes - I’m a sucker for these and speakers love to share them.  I use this section to remember them, save them as a screensaver and possibly create social media posts for later.  

• Needs Research - There could be software or tools that I want to investigate.  I use this section for collecting those ideas.

Once all of this is down on paper I transfer it to my Trello Board System & Calendar.  My main focus is creating action items for those ideas in that ASAP Column.

Make a list.  Set deadlines. Then execute and make it happen. Don’t let all that knowledge go to waste!

I use Trello for just about everything in my life!  You can grab it here for free. It keeps me so organized.   

Now there’s a plan for taking those things that I’ve learned and implementing them!

Conferences Are About Networking Too:

You are going to meet so many new people!  And it’s tough to remember them all. Business cards are becoming not so popular as social media has taken over.  So whether you get a business card, jot down their info in your notebook or just follow them on Instagram, be sure you are keeping track of your new contacts in some organized way.  

Here’s how I keep track of all my new best friends!

• Bookmark one of their images and save to a new folder on Instagram with the conference name.

• Connect when I get back home with a nice little “was great to meet you” message. I love having them all in a folder so that I can quickly check in on all the cool photographers I’ve just met. It’s really neat to watch their businesses grow and celebrate with them along the way.  Having someone to bounce ideas around with who isn’t in your same area is always a bonus too, so don’t neglect the networking aspect of a photography conference. You might just meet your new best friend or business partner there ;) 

I hope this little system will help make your next photography conference a success and that you get to put all of those amazing ideas in place for your business!  

And if we just happen to be at the same conference be sure to find me and say hey!  I want to meet you! :)

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I've been at this for a long time now . . .

I’m at my desk and honestly have no idea where this blog post is going. Great opening line, right?

My heart is heavy this morning, and I know someone is going to need to hear what is on in.

This business and this industry is amazing. It has given me so much joy and freedom to live a life I absolutely love. I can take my kids to school, be there for their games, cook dinner (ok, make sandwiches) and drop it all if a friend needs me in the middle of the day. I’ve also gotten to know some of the most wonderful people. They’ve gone from clients to close friends and for that I am so thankful.

With all that said, the photography business can also be draining - both physically and emotionally.

I have made the mistake of pushing myself too hard over the years, taking on too many clients (mostly because I wasn’t priced correctly to make enough profit) and losing sleep to editing images because of my control freak nature (and again, not priced high enough to outsource my retouching). That’s a story for another day!

Now, this isn’t meant to be a depressing post. I want you to learn from my mistakes, my long hours, my many years of not knowing how to say no. I scrambled to find the answers and learned from trial and error (a lot of errors haha!). There were no Facebook groups (are you in mine?), hardly any forums where women were welcomed in with open arms and Instagram hadn’t even been thought of. At this point in my photography career I’ve pretty much made all the mistakes and it’s smooth sailing. We’ve got pricing figured out, workflow is on point and now it’s just shooting and marketing. I seriously love my job.

So if you are struggling . . .

. . . to find a rhythm, to set yourself apart in an oversaturated market, to get organized, to price yourself correctly . . . know that it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. And the growing pains are totally worth it.

If you want to take action, speed up the process, bypass some of the mistakes and learn from a girl who has been through them all, I would love to work with you. Mentoring other senior photographers has become a passion of mine, and I get just as much joy from it as I do working with my high school seniors.

Reach out if you need a little help with your senior photography business. You don’t have to do this alone :)

Real life pic of me and one of my sweet photog friends, Amy

We were trying to be cute. How did we do? :)

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Planning Your Most Intentional Year Yet: Part Three - Planning On Purpose

There was a time when I was constantly exhausted and frazzled.  I was missing things, dropping the ball - in my business and in my personal life.  The day I forgot to send in money with my son to a reward day for his class was what broke me.  Easily recoverable, but I had had enough.

I was at my breaking point. He was so excited, and I had forgotten all about it.

I had been staying up late when everyone else had already fallen asleep to finish updating the website with model team stuff and wracking my brain trying to figure out some way to bring in clients NOW!  Sending in $5 so that he could buy all the sugary snacks and soft drinks his heart desired was not on the top of my mind. I blew it.

His teacher loaned him money that day after a frantic email by this mom of the year.  Bless her!  

Back to the point of all of this.  I don’t do that anymore. When I started implementing this system at the end of each year it all started coming together.  I was in control. I was running my business instead of letting it run me. I was able to let it go at night and be with my family.  

And I want that for you too.  So I’m going to walk you through my process that I go through every year around this time that has made a HUGE difference in my business and home.  

This takes some time, but if you are willing to invest now there are tons of payoffs later on in the year.  I set aside a solid day to get going and dive in deep with my business. Then I’ll put a few more hours over the next week or so (usually that week between Christmas and New Year’s) as I brainstorm or things come to mind.

Here we go . . . 

First off, I realize that we are all in different places.  Some of us are full-time photographers with commercial space and maybe photographing more than just seniors, some are stay at home moms or dads doing all we can to hold down the fort and run a business at the same time, and for some of us this is a little side-hustle to the 9 to 5.  I get it. I’ve been in all 3 of those scenarios. This system can work in whatever season of life you are in. You just might have to tweak it to make it work for you.  

Before we dive in here are the tools I use when planning my year:

This big blank dry erase wall calendar, my trusty Trello boards, my financials, my Yes / No List  and my goals I’ve set for the year. If you haven’t created those last two lists I would highly suggest doing that first before planning your year.  I talk about them a lot in this post and this one too. Oh and LOTS of post it notes. Here and here are my favorite sizes for this calendar. They fit perfectly.  And these dry erase markers. Ultra fine tip is the best for this purpose.

If you are wondering, all of this is synced to my Google calendar as well.  I couldn’t live without it on my phone. But I am such a visual person that seeing the whole year has been so helpful.

DOWNLOAD YOUR INTENTIONAL YEAR WORKBOOK HERE

Ok, here’s how I plan my year.  We’re going to take it one step at a time.

1. One week every month for myself

You read that right. First up on the calendar I block off an entire week each month for writing content, social media planning and working on my business.  Those are my no client weeks - no sessions, no ordering, no mentoring. It’s my hair up in a messy bun and pajama pants on if I want kind of week.  That’s my week of planning and preparing everything for the next month. You might not need that kind of time or maybe you just want to block it off and use it for catching up on editing or client orders.  I highly recommend it though, even if it’s just a few days.

2. Block personal time

Next up, I block off any personal time I need.  Yes, this sounds really uppity, but it’s not. It’s a necessity, and it’s based on my priorities.  You block your time off based on yours! I personally don’t want to work on my kids’ birthdays if at all possible.  I like to be fully present for them that morning instead of trying to get ready for a session. There may be surgeries scheduled (common in our house with one of our kiddos).  Or maybe it’s a vacation already planned. Woohoo! Those are all dates that I know are not options for clients so they are blocked off.

3. Conferences

We all love them, right?!  I try to make at least one a year and if I can only get one in, it’s going to be SYNC.  It’s my absolute favorite conference for senior photographers.

4. Sessions

From my financial goals for next year and knowing my average senior sale I know that I want to book at least 30 senior sessions next year.  I also know that I only want to shoot on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. So those are my only options for senior sessions.  Mondays and Fridays are for mentoring for senior photographers (yep, shameless plug - haha). I know that I’m probably going to be shooting more in the summer and fall, but I do not overload the calendar with available dates. Availability is based on what I can personally handle without going crazy, not based on lack of planning by others.  Sorry not sorry. That being said, I educate clients year round on when they should be booking sessions and have a tiered session fee schedule to help control the calendar. Less desirable dates have lower session fees and the busy season dates have higher session fees.

5. Consults and Session Premieres

Ok, I’m a little stingy with my mornings.  I’ll admit it. This is when I feel the most productive and creative so if I’m not shooting I am able to create in other ways - social media, Facebook Lives, blog post writing, etc.  These sorts of appointments are only scheduled after lunch and only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. If I shoot on any of those days, it is not considered a consult / premiere day.  I have a hard time switching gears / roles. So if I am shooting, I am not selling. Hopefully that makes sense. I like to handle the same sort of appointments back to back on the same days.  My goal is to have 2 to 3 session premieres or consults on one day.

6. Big Days For My Audience

This part takes some research, but it’s worth it.  Because my target audience is 16 -17 year old girls (and of course, their moms) in my area, I want to know what is going on in their lives!  On my calendar are all of their prom dates, church camps, homecoming, community events, big school events, exam weeks, graduations, school breaks and no school days, etc.  I want to know what is happening so that I can talk to them about what they care about! Obviously some of this information isn’t out there yet, but I do the best I can with the details I can find and fill in as dates are released.

7. Big Days For My Studio

This is going to be things like monthly admin and review days.  I always want to know what is working and what isn’t working in the studio, plus keep on top of administrative tasks that can easily fall through the cracks.  So I set aside one day towards the end of each month for a monthly review and admin morning. Ok, now that I know what is going on in my target audience’s lives, I can start planning around them and the needs in our studio. On the calendar I start adding things like a senior open house, graduation announcement sale launch, and finally start planning our biggest launch each year - our senior model team.

8. Model Team Launch

Alright, this is a big topic and not one that I can go into great detail here.  This will be a high level view, but you will get an idea about how I plan this launch out on the calendar.  Here are some important dates that need to be set:

• Model Team Launch Date

• Model Team Application Deadline

• Model Team Registration Deadline

• Model Team Shoot Dates

• Model Team Meetings

• Model Team Events, Parties, Gatherings, etc.

Now that the dates are on the calendar I can start backing into the marketing plan for our senior model team.  

Side note - I am working on an actual senior model team launch plan to release, but it’s not quite ready yet.  Be sure you are on this list below if you want to be among the first to know :)

9. Model Team Marketing Plan

Here’s the thing with building a model team for your studio.  You need a really long runway. You can’t just say “Hey, here’s my thing.  Be sure to sign up!” after being in hibernation for a few months.

The success of your model team program is determined by how you show up in the slow season. 

So don’t hide away from social media when you aren’t shooting sessions! Get creative and show your face even when you aren’t shooting that much. It has a huge payoff when it comes time to fill your senior model team for the next year.

In my studio we have a “VIP” List for teenagers who want to eventually be on our model team.  We are constantly trying to build our list, not just right before the model team launch. I believe it is my responsibility to bring in new business, not our senior models.  I do not rely on them for referrals. Is it nice when I get them? Sure! But their job is to have fun and be a kid. My job is to bring in business and I do that with that VIP List of email and cell numbers.

I use our website to collect data. I love that Photobiz is so robust with their forms and email marketing.  We also use Project Broadcast when we collect cell numbers. It’s a group texting app that allows for tagging and scheduling texts.  It works great for getting info out because we all know how well teenagers check their email. Haha! Here’s 500 free credits for Project Broadcast if you want to try them out :)

What do we do with that list?  I’m so glad you asked!

Our senior model team marketing campaign runs for at least 2 months leading up to our model team launch date. Remember that long run way I talked about earlier?  This is it. During that time I am addressing objections and concerns to the model team without my audience even knowing I’m talking about it. I write blog posts about when to book a senior session, how long senior sessions last, tips for what to wear and how many outfits to bring to their sessions, etc.  As we get closer to the launch I start talking about model team specific topics - styled shoots, new friends, fun times. It’s much lighter, and I am trying to build excitement then. So all of those ideas / blog posts / Instastories are on the calendar too. I want to know exactly what I am supposed to be talking about each day leading up to our launch and afterwards too.

Once that launch date hits I am fully present online - creating polls, asking questions, answering questions, generating as much buzz as I possibly can.  I also create videos to release to Instastories that lead up to the deadline. They sort of break down what the model team is all about and then eventually lead into a countdown for our deadline.  I create these with 2 different apps - Splice and HyperText. They take some time to create, but I think it was worth it. Those video release dates are also on the calendar. These create a lot of excitement around the new model team!

10. Seasonal Posts

All of the normal holidays we celebrate are on the calendar plus some fun ones.  I use the National Day Calendar to find some silly things to chat about on social media - national dog day, national jelly bean day, national cupcake day, etc.  These are easy to build Instastories around, and sometimes we even do fun model team shoots for them.

Besides holidays I am trying to post things proactively to get my audience thinking ahead.  In the winter I am posting about spring portraits. In the spring I am talking about summer availability.  In the summer I’m talking about fall colors. Get the picture? I am always guiding them about what they need to be thinking about next and trying to fill the calendar with sessions without sounding like a used car salesman AND especially without discounting anything.  I am a big believer that discounting services only devalues them so we never discount in our studio.

11. Client Education and Inspiration Blog Posts

We aren’t always shooting and we don’t always have a new senior session to blog about, but we do have lots of images! So use those images to spark some ideas around writing a few blog posts to educate your clients. These can be great to reference back to for frequently asked questions, showing how a certain location photographs or just giving senior session tips. Get creative and stay in front of your audience consistently to build trust with them and to set yourself up as the authority in your local area.

BONUS - Monthly Areas Of Growth

If you have followed along on this little Intentional Year Planning blog post series you know we talked about intentional growth as well.  So that is on my calendar also. I like to always be learning, growing and challenging myself. Focusing on one topic or area of my business to improve each month has been a game changer for me. Sometimes that comes in the form of a course or a book I want to dive into.

Let’s Recap Real Quick

In order get your calendar full with your ideal clients it’s going to take a lot work on the front end, and frankly, throughout the year. Gone are the days of “build it and they will come”.

• Evaluate what went right and what went wrong last year

• Dream big

• Create your Yes / No List

• Set your boundaries

• Brainstorm your goals

• Evaluate your goals

• Set your goals for the year

• Break down your goals into actionable steps

• Brainstorm intentional growth areas

• Set your intentional growth plan

• Block off time on your calendar for yourself and your business

• Add session availability to your calendar based on your financial goals and boundaries

• Add big dates to your calendar

• Set your senior model team milestone dates

• Brainstorm senior model team marketing ideas

• Create your senior model team marketing plan

• Add all of those blog posts, social media posts, email campaigns to your calendar

• Don’t forget to celebrate those fun random national holidays throughout the year

• Brainstorm some educational and inspirational blog posts

• Schedule those blog posts on your calendar

• Keep showing up ALL YEAR LONG (not just when it’s time to launch your model team)!

Be sure to download Your Intentional Year Workbook and start with this blog post.  If you haven’t gone through the last blog post which covers the first few pages - what went right, what went wrong, dreaming, setting your Yes / No List - you can find it here.  Then it’s on to brainstorming, evaluating and setting your goals for this year! And then filling up that wonderful calendar with all your amazing marketing ideas! You got this!

I’ve added a few more pages to it to include getting these important dates on your calendar for the year.  I’m so excited to see how you start planning your year. I’d love for you to share with me how your goal setting and planning goes either here, on Instagram or in my Facebook Group.

Here’s to the best year yet!  You got this!

Be sure to grab the free workbook below to go through this exercise to start planning your most intentional year for your senior photography business :)

INTENTIONAL PLANNING FOR SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Planning Your Most Intentional Year Yet: Part Two - Goal Setting

In part one of this blog series on Planning Your Most Intentional Year Yet we made a few lists.  We evaluated our year and wrote down what went right and what went wrong. We did a little dreaming about how our perfect year would look.  And then we made our Yes / No List.  

We created boundaries around with our time, around our businesses and our families.  With those boundaries in place we can better protect our resources and focus on our true priorities. 

Next up . . . we’re going to start setting some goals.

A goal, by its very definition, is a target, a purpose or an intention.  It’s the place we want to finish.

In order to accomplish a goal you have to set your eyes on the finish line and essentially put blinders on to everything else - all the distractions, the temptations and the noise.  You have to focus on that target in order to reach it.

Now I’ve been guilty in the past of trying to do too many things at once.  If you know me personally, that’s a shocker, right? Haha! And I bet you’ve done the same thing at some point.  Piled on to an already full schedule? Yep. It happens.

But this year you have your Yes / No List and it’s going to stay somewhere you can see it so that doesn’t happen again.  Ok team? Let’s get to it! ;)

Before you even start setting those goals, do a little evaluation of last year and the different areas of your life, your health, relationships, finances and business.  Where do you feel like you need to focus the most this year?  

Once you know those key areas it’s time to start forming some goals around improving them this year.

Goal Brainstorming

Get your pen and paper out!  It’s time to start jotting down some goal ideas.

Be sure the goals you write down are specific and can be measured.  “Improving sales” is not a goal. “Increasing my average senior sale to $2500” is a goal.  See how there’s a target to hit with that one?

These don’t have to be perfect.  You’re just getting it all out on paper right now. 

Once you’ve brainstormed as much as you possibly can, look over your list and choose the goals that are crazy important to you, that are in alignment with your priorities and that are going to move your business and personal life forward this year.

I’d choose between 8-10 goals to set for the year.  Too many could paralyze you and keep you from taking action or just the opposite, exhaust you.

Goal Evaluation

Before you set these in stone it’s best to double check them against a few things. Ask yourself these questions about each of your goals:

1. Does this goal fall in line with my priorities and my “why”?

2. Do I have the time and the budget for this goal?

3. Is this the right time in my life for this goal?  

4. Does this goal line up with my perfect year I dreamed about? 

If you answered no to any of these questions it’s probably best to put that particular goal on the back burner for now. You can always revisit your goals. Nothing is permanent here!

Goal Setting

If you’re ready to make your Goals List then let’s do it!  I’ve provided a few more pages to add to the Intentional Planning Workbook from the first blog post in this series.  Go ahead and print those new pages out.

DOWNLOAD YOUR INTENTIONAL YEAR WORKBOOK HERE

Now, post that Goals List somewhere you can see it!

Goal Planning

Looking at that list for what you want to accomplish in a year can be a little intimidating and overwhelming.  Those goals are going to take some time to tackle. So it’s best to break them down into smaller action steps and time frames.  I like to break them down into quarterly (90 day) goals.   

Here’s an example: 

Let’s say you want to make $100,000 in sales this year.  You want a sales average of $2500. That means you need 40 senior clients.  How are you going to get there?

• Quarter 1 Goal: $10,000 (4 seniors)

• Quarter 2 Goal: $20,000 (8 seniors)

• Quarter 3 Goal: $40,000 (16 seniors)

• Quarter 4 Goal: $30,000 (12 seniors)

Now break that down even further into more action items.

Action Item Ideas:

• Set available dates on the calendar.

• Evaluate pricing to make sure you can get a $2500 average. (Do you need help with this? Look here.)

• Create a marketing plan to book those available dates.

Keep breaking down those goals until you have a solid idea of what it is going to take to reach your big goals this year.

The Big Picture

In order to not get completely overwhelmed with trying to do too many things at once, I like to look at the year as a whole.  Where can I fit all of this in to meet those goals I’ve set for myself each year?

If you have room for it you could get yourself a giant dry erase wall calendar of the year.  I absolutely love this one I have in the studio. It houses all of our important dates - sessions, premieres, model team activities, marketing campaigns, conferences, and yep - goals. 

Once I can see my year (the big picture) I can start putting those action items into my year.  I know that in June and July the studio will be in full swing senior season. There won’t be much time for anything else other than shooting and sales.  So, I am not going to try to tackle a big goal during those months. I’ll take it easy on myself. Make sense?

If you don’t have room for something like this you can always use a smaller desk or wall calendar.  It doesn’t have to be fancy! It just needs to serve the purpose so that you can see the big picture.

I’ve provided a quarterly breakdown in the Intentional Year Workbook so you can start jotting down your action items now while they’re fresh in your head instead of impatiently waiting the 2 days for that calendar from Amazon Prime.  Haha!

Intentional Growth

Outside of monthly goals I want to be sure I am growing my knowledge in all areas of business.  I love to read and learn new things so I like to challenge myself to dive into one area or subject each month.  If this is something you have an interest in as well but haven’t really focused on it just yet I would start with every other month instead of a new subject each month.  Or give yourself a break when you know your calendar is going to be full.

Creating Your Intentional Growth List

It’s time to brainstorm all those big things you’ve been wanting to learn and improve in your business and life.  What areas do you want to focus on this year? Are there some books you want to read? Maybe some podcasts you want to binge listen to?  Maybe you have something personal you want to learn?

I’ll start a list to get the creativity flowing . . . 

• Off Camera Flash

• Studio Lighting

• In Person Sales

• Instagram Stories

• Facebook Ads

• Branding

• Workflow

• Pricing

• Pinterest

• Model Team

• Blogging & SEO

• Chalk Painting Cabinets

• Hand Lettering

Now think about your year as a whole.  There are busier months and slower months in the senior photography business and probably in your home as well.  

The purpose here is to take each of those areas of improvement and assign them to a month where you can really focus on them.  If you can keep your blinders on and not get distracted by all the shiny objects you could grow by leaps and bounds this coming year.  Align these with your goals and see exponential growth!

There may be months where you just want to only focus on your clients.  That’s ok! And there may be months where you need to focus solely on your family.  Maybe you have 2 kiddos playing 2 different sports at the same time. Been there! Or one of your kiddos has an upcoming surgery.  You know those months are going to be crazy, so maybe you choose a lighter subject to focus on or nothing at all. We need mental breaks too!  

Now, these are obviously not set in stone.  You may find that you need to focus on something sooner in the year.  Do it! The purpose is to just stay focused on one area of improvement instead of bouncing all over the place.  Ok? Let’s do it! 

Be sure you print out your Intentional Year Workbook.  If you haven’t gone through the last blog post which covers the first few pages - what went right, what went wrong, dreaming, setting your Yes / No List - you can find it here.  Then it’s on to brainstorming, evaluating and setting your goals for this year! You got this!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with.  Please come on over to the Facebook Group to share with us about your most intentional year ever!

Here’s to the best year yet!  You got this!

Be sure to grab the free workbook below to go through this exercise to start planning your most intentional year!

p.s. Next up in this series we discuss intentional planning, senior model team marketing and putting dates on the calendar for next year ;)

INTENTIONAL PLANNING FOR SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Planning Your Most Intentional Year Yet: Part One - The Yes / No List

Time flies, doesn’t it?  It seems like we were just celebrating Christmas.  It’s already here again?! 

What’s that old saying?  The days are long but the years are short.  Every year they seem a little shorter to me.  In the busyness of life . . . the kids’ activities, the emergency trips to the vet, the basement flooding, the car breaking down, the client asking for a weeknight appointment, the hard drive that fails, the endless social media, the deadlines . . . it can be tough to make the best decisions on the fly.  But having those decisions set in stone up front can make life a little easier. And I want to help you with that.

My hope for you this year is for you to be intentional about your photography business, your relationships and about life in general. A sure fire way to do that is to take some time to prep and plan for it.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to take you through my process of planning my year.  And it all starts with looking back. We are going to make 3 very important lists today to help set some boundaries for your next year (and dream a little).  

Why in the world do we need boundaries? 

Well, the same reasons we put our babies in pack ‘n plays, baby gates up at the stairs, fences around our yards . . . to protect us.  

I want your time and your energy protected this year.  Time flies, right? You need time for your family, time to work on your business, not in it.  You need time to rest, time to build your business and nurture the relationships that are important to you.

So let’s get started.

Heads up: There is a free template at the bottom of this blog post to help you through this entire exercise :)

Before you can make this list, you need to think back over your year and evaluate it.  Let’s make a different list before the YES / NO list. It’s the “What Went Right And What Went Wrong” list.  

It’s pretty easy to remember the bad stuff, right?  That’s natural and just the way we are wired. Sometimes it’s harder to remember the good.  So look back through your calendar and your client list to start jogging your memory. I bet you have a pretty long list after that exercise.

Now it’s time to dream.

If you could plan and put your perfect year into action, what would it look like?  Get really specific here.

• What would your mornings look like?

• What would your evenings look like? 

• Where would you spend your time?

• What would you be photographing?

• And when would you be shooting?

• How do you want your days to feel? 

• What sorts of fun things would you be doing?

• Where would you go on vacation?

• What new skills would you learn?

• How would you live life if it were completely up to you?

Finally, it’s time for that YES / NO list for 2020.

Ok, you’ve done a lot of work so far.  Now you can take all of those notes and start setting your boundaries for the year.  

What are you saying no to this year?

• What drains your energy? 

• What takes way more time than it should? 

• What are some things that another person could easily be doing to take the burden off of you? 

• What are you holding onto too tightly in your business?

• Where will you draw the line with your clients? 

• What things can you put a stop to in order to protect your sanity and family this year?

What are you saying yes to this year?

• What gives you life? 

• What sets you on fire? 

• What makes you most proud? 

• What do you absolutely love to do? 

• What are the things you know you need to be doing but haven’t had the time or made the time to do? 

• What matters most to you?

• And at the end of next year, what will you want to be able to say you did?

Really think about each of those questions as you are making your lists.  It may take a few times of returning to it before it’s final.

Once you have that YES / NO list I want you to put it somewhere that you can see it every day.  Make a promise to yourself that you will stick by them because you want to be intentional with your time, with your business and with your families.  Yep, you’ll compromise and you’ll fall off the wagon. Let me be the first to say that I do that a lot! No one is perfect. But this will set you up for one of the most intentional years yet in your business if you go through this exercise and remind yourself of your YES’S AND NO’S consistently.

Here’s to the best year yet!  You got this!

Be sure to grab the free workbook below to go through this exercise to start planning your most intentional year!

p.s. Next week we are going to start breaking down our goals for next year ;)

INTENTIONAL PLANNING FOR SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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