joyofmarketing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thinking about a rebrand for your photography business? If a new logo or changing your business name has been on your mind friend, I’ve got you. 

On this episode, I’m letting you listen in on a recent coaching session with one of my super successful Peak Performance coaching students, Jenn Kerfeld. Jenn was questioning whether now was a good time for a rebrand. 

You’ll hear the questions I ask her to help her decide if rebranding a successful studio is the right move. Here’s your chance to see what an unscripted, unedited coaching session is like with me.  Ready to rebrand? Hit play.

What should my domain name be? How many images do I choose? Do I need a logo or just my business name in a font? What color palette should I use? Should I buy a template or get a custom site built? What’s a good tagline? Do I include all my prices? What the heck do I do about SEO? AHHHHHH. Does thinking about your photography website stress you out? If so, then this episode is for you, friend. I’ve jammed it full of the dos and don’t of building a website for your photography business. And there’s even a checklist of quick fixes you can download to get your website picture perfect RIGHT NOW. Let’s do this!

Friend, have you ever wondered if the way you grew up is holding you back from becoming your authentic self and succeeding in your business? Today, I’m chatting with my student, Connie Lynch about that and so much more. Connie’s father was a driven businessman who wasn’t home much.  When her father’s version of success rubbed off on her, Connie was afraid that if she was successful with her photography business, she wouldn’t be around for her family.   

I wish I could bottle Connie up and spread her around the world so this podcast is how I’m doing that. Connie’s a military spouse with an often-deployed husband and a mom of 2 kiddos. You’ll hear here Connie’s tips for managing your schedule like a boss when you’re growing a boutique photography business, have kids at home and want date nights with your hubby.  Get ready to fall in love and be inspired on today’s episode.

It doesn't matter if success in your photography business means 6 figures a year or just a little extra cash to take a vacation or make things not so tight all the time. If you’ve got kids, you want THEM to go for THEIR biggest, boldest goals and create a life even more amazing than yours. But what kind of example are you setting for them? If you want to SHOW your kiddo that if you can go for your dreams, they can go for their dreams, I’ve got 4 tips for you today so press play. Your kiddos will thank you for this one!

Money. As soon as you hear it do you feel Icky? Greedy? Shameful? Materialistic? Maybe you feel like you have to hide the fact that you make so little money in your photography business, so you spend money you don’t have to look like you make more. Or, maybe you think you make too much money, so you try to hide THAT! As a society, there’s this belief that rich people are BAD. Heck, even in Hollywood, the star of the movie is usually the evil, wealthy entrepreneur so that adds to the guilt and shame surrounding money. So, as photography business owners, how do we reconcile that it is ok to make money with photography? How can we avoid feeling guilty about making it, spending it, saving it and giving it? Well that’s what today’s podcast is all about. Let’s dig in!

Now, for today’s podcast, I’ve got a little twist for you. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that 10 years ago I applied for the trademark for this joycast. But friends, it took me TEN years to put this show out into the world for your ears to hear. Needless to say, my team and I are pretty stoked to make it to 25 episodes given how long it took to get this launched. I’ve heard the average podcast doesn’t make it to 15 episodes, so to celebrate this little milestone, I’m sharing 25 unexpected lessons that helped me grow my photography business into more than I ever dreamed of over the last 22 years. I hope you write down your favorites and implement them into your life so you can increase the speed at which you succeed. So press play now, and let’s do this.

I see you over there blowing up Google with questions about your photography business card. What should my business card say? Should it have one photo or many photos? Or maybe I’ll just have my phone number and email on thick paper or ooh, even wood? STOP. There’s a reason why your business card hasn’t magically sprinkled sessions all over your calendar. And that’s what I’m going to share with you on this episode of the Joycast. Let’s do this!

Friend, we need to talk about a certain someone in your life. The one who puts you down and tells you that you aren’t good enough. The one who knows all your greatest fears, doubts and insecurities and throws them in your face. The one who constantly reminds you of all the reasons “people like you” can’t succeed in a photography business. Look, I know where that mean bully lives who is holding you back and so do you. And on this episode, I’m going to help you call her out and get control over what she’s doing to your life. So tap play and let’s do this.

So you’re booking sessions…but the clients who are booking you aren’t exactly your dream client. You’re probably thinking that since you aren’t living a fancy lifestyle, it’s just not in the cards for you to get better clients who want all the things. Not true, my friend. It’s time to kick those beliefs to the curb. Let’s talk about what you CAN do to get those dream clients to step in front of your camera. I’ve got 7 things to share that you can start doing today, without ADVERTISING, to get better clients booking you. Let’s do this.