If you're ready to stop wishing for success and instead, have a strategy that takes your photography business to the next level, join us inside AMPLIFY! My lifetime-access, group coaching program that will help you take action, overcome blocks & challenges, and support you as you expand through all seasons of business growth.
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Summary: As a photographer, it can feel discouraging when dream inquiries aren’t consistently popping into our inbox. We know that we have SO much to offer our clients and that they would have an amazing experience by hiring us as their photographer, but we aren’t getting the opportunity to book them. We feel like we’ve poured so much of our heart and soul into sharing why we LOVE doing what we do -- we feel like we’re doing everything and yet, it’s still crickets in our inbox. In today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing some tactical, actionable steps that you can take to create momentum and start calling in your dream inquiries and clients. I’m going to help you get even more clear around the steps to take, help you prioritize your tasks to focus on, remove any blocks or resistance you might have and help you take inspired action to do MORE of what you LOVE!
Listen in now to get inspiration on how to call in and attract more of your dream photography clients! 🎧
If you're ready to stop wishing for success and instead, have a strategy that takes your photography business to the next level, join us inside AMPLIFY! My lifetime-access, group coaching program that will help you take action, overcome blocks & challenges, and support you as you expand through all seasons of business growth.
--
Summary: As a photographer, it can feel discouraging when dream inquiries aren’t consistently popping into our inbox. We know that we have SO much to offer our clients and that they would have an amazing experience by hiring us as their photographer, but we aren’t getting the opportunity to book them. We feel like we’ve poured so much of our heart and soul into sharing why we LOVE doing what we do -- we feel like we’re doing everything and yet, it’s still crickets in our inbox. In today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing some tactical, actionable steps that you can take to create momentum and start calling in your dream inquiries and clients. I’m going to help you get even more clear around the steps to take, help you prioritize your tasks to focus on, remove any blocks or resistance you might have and help you take inspired action to do MORE of what you LOVE!
Listen in now to get inspiration on how to call in and attract more of your dream photography clients! 🎧
Hello and welcome. Friend, you are listening to the she Calls Her Shots podcast, the show that empowers photographers like you to take inspired action and earn more money. As a full-time photographer and business owner and as a photographer, can you relate to that feeling when we're just a bit frustrated and we feel a little bit stuck when our dream clients or dream inquiries aren't consistently popping into our inbox? We know right that we have so much to offer our clients. We know that they would have an amazing experience. We know that everything the service that we provide is top-notch and the best of the best if they would just hire and book us right. But we aren't getting the opportunity to work with them. We're not getting the opportunity to hop on the calls because the inquiries aren't coming in and so often we think what's going on, like what is happening? How come I am not getting the consistent clients that I know that I can service and that I can help? We often feel like we've poured so much of our heart and our soul into sharing why we love doing what we're doing. We're showing up on social media, we're showing up in our stories, we're connecting in art with our email list and we feel like we're doing everything and yet it's still crickets in our inbox. In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing some tactical and actionable steps that you can take to create momentum and start calling in those dream inquiries and clients. And these are things that I'm currently doing and that have worked for me and clients and that are giving them incredible results. If we haven't met yet, I'm Christa Marie. My mission is to help you build a thriving photography business that creates more wealth and freedom in your day-to-day life. And here's the thing when we're calling in our dream clients, you might be surprised to know that you already know how to do these things, but here's the key In this episode, I'm going to help you get even more clear around the specific steps to take and help you prioritize your tasks that you want to focus on and help you remove any blocks or resistance you might have so that you can take that inspired action and do more of what you love. And if consistently calling in more dream clients is something that you feel like you're currently struggling with, or maybe you just want more support around it, At the end of the episode I'll share some more information about how I can support you and help you book more dream sessions, but for now, let's go ahead and dive into this episode. Okay, so if you're involved in any photography groups online, especially on Facebook, you're probably seeing a multitude of photographers mentioning that bookings are lower or or lower or dropping this year compared to previous years, and I think that this is a trend that we will always see.
Speaker 1:
I think we are, as photographers, a bit overemphasizing this when we're seeing other photographers share about this, because here's the reality Some photographers are still crushing it, some photographers are still getting angry, some photographers are still booking out, but oftentimes, when we aren't getting the clients or the inquiries that we want and we hear that other people are also struggling, sometimes we can subconsciously use that as a reason or almost an excuse as to like oh, it's not me, it's the industry, right. Or oh, it's not me, it's just everyone's feeling this, and then we kind of take it as a reason to back off a little bit and almost, let's just be honest, like how many times have you had like a little mini pity party for yourself? I've done this, I'm just. You know, I'm real, I have done this before, right, we use it as information to help support the feelings that we're feeling and I just want to acknowledge it doesn't feel great when we're not booked out, like that's. I just want to first of all normalize that. I think oftentimes when I work with clients, if they're not getting booked, we or especially the clients I work with we often try to find the silver lining pretty quickly, right, like well, I'm not getting booked, but da, da, da, da. And while I think if you know me as a person, I I can often see the positive in things.
Speaker 1:
I think in these instances we need to first acknowledge like it doesn't feel great and letting that become normal. Because here's the truth our business and our inquiries and our bookings and everything, especially in the photography industry, is so seasonal. We're gonna have busy seasons, we're gonna have slow seasons. And until we can normalize when things feel slow and doesn't mean we have to love the slow seasons or love when we're not getting bookings, but If we can at least normalize that as being part of the process, it'll help us consistently keep showing up, as opposed to the tendency that we sometimes get in where, when things are good and leads are coming in, we're kind of all in on our business and then all of a sudden, when things are slow, we take a big step back because we haven't normalized to ourselves that this is a part of the seasons. It's a part of our journey and our industry as photographers. So I just want to, first and foremost, normalize that this is going to be something that you're going to experience. However, it doesn't mean you have to be at the will or at the whim of clients finding you to book you. There are things that you can be doing to call in those dream clients even during the slower seasons, and I mentioned this in the beginning, but these are things that I am still actively doing.
Speaker 1:
For anyone who has listened to the podcast, you know that for the last 14 years, I have been mostly a wedding and engagement photographer. I started my business in Florida, I moved to California, which meant I had to completely rebuild in a new market with new pricing strategies and new venues and just kind of a whole new take on weddings and engagements, and four years ago I started to make the transition into brand photography. And this year in 2024, I officially have my last two weddings of the year which I am there that are coming up. This has been an intentional decision that I have made to fully transition over into brand photography and I am still using these strategies and these ways of growing that are allowing me to make connections with dream clients, so that I am getting inquiries and I am not in this just like super slow season where I feel defeated and nothing is coming my way, and I want to share that.
Speaker 1:
No matter what type of photography you do whether it's weddings, engagements, portraits, seniors, brand photography, newborns these strategies will work, no matter what niche you're in. So, first and foremost, something that I think is underutilized in our industry but really is so incredibly important is just reaching out and building connections with your dream clients. I know that you probably hear that and you think oh, crystal, like. I know that that's not a, that's not game changing information, but I want you to think about this for a second how are you using your social platforms? I'm just going to use Instagram as an example, because I think that's the one, as photographers, we mostly find ourselves on.
Speaker 1:
Do you find yourself going on to Instagram, posting, waiting to see what comments and likes come in, right, like, maybe you're scrolling through some stories of your friends and hearting or replying to some of their stories, but like, how are you using Instagram as a connection building tool, because I very intentionally made the shift to using Instagram differently about six to 12 months ago in my business because I found myself feeling really burnt out from it. I was in that same cycle of engagement is low, people aren't liking or commenting or sharing things as much, and we can sometimes get caught in the like how do I create content that's gonna go viral? How do I get people to find me right? There's this underlying theme that we get in our business of how do I get people to come to me, and that's how I was noticing that I was using Instagram and that's how I noticed a lot of my clients using Instagram. So one thing I want to recommend and encourage you to do is change the way you think about Instagram. Use it as a platform where you intentionally go on and set aside time, not just to scroll and like, look at other people's posts, but actively go in and engage. If you use Instagram, you probably are aware they have a feature where you can save profiles, so you can have a saved collection of profiles. I love to use this.
Speaker 1:
I have a saved category of dream clients that I love to work with. I have literally gone out and looked for women-owned businesses all throughout California in my like dream client scenario, right? So my dream client tends to include women who are a bit spiritual in nature, love to be outdoors and feel connected and grounded to the earth. They know that they are on a big mission, they have like a lot of really big goals to make an impact on the world around them and they often do a lot of inner work. Like these are my dream clients, and so I went on and found some of them include right Like bar fitness instructors, life coaches, health coaches, right Wellness instructors and wellness leaders. So I've gone in and created that save list of dream clients so that I can intentionally go in and engage with their content, and I really wanna encourage you to do this.
Speaker 1:
If you're a wedding photographer, find vendors or planners or venues or people that you would just love to have on your dream vendor team. Connect and engage with their content and actually engage and build relationships. So much of this business relationship building that we do. We have to come back to what is the intent, right, and while, yes, like our hope is that one day we will eventually work with them when you're going onto the platform I want you to set an intentionality of my goal, and my intent today is to just like, authentically engage and celebrate these women that I want to work with, these dream clients that I have. Let that be your intention, because when that's your intention, other people can feel it right.
Speaker 1:
We don't wanna go in with the like oh, like a checklist, like, oh, I'm gonna engage with three posts and like three things, and then I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna pitch myself right, like, if that's your strategy and if it's working well for you amazing, stick with it. I'm glad that that's working for you. But for a lot of us that just feels a little weird, right, and so I don't give myself a timeline of, after you know, a month or two months or eight times of engaging with them. I'm gonna pitch myself or something. But if I do see an opportunity where I can serve them in some way, I will go in and offer it to them, right? I oftentimes like to do that via email. I just find in my business social media.
Speaker 1:
Unless I've built a really strong connection with someone on Instagram, I don't like pitching myself via Instagram, because one it's super easy for Instagram DMs to just get lost in the mix of things, right? Someone looks at it and then forgets to respond. They are a business owner, right? Theoretically, if the person you're reaching out to is a business owner, they're not going on to Instagram for business things. A lot of the time they're going on to like, post and answer DMs. So I wanna meet them in their inbox where they're actually answering business related things.
Speaker 1:
So I like to build the connection first on Instagram, create that connection they know who I am and then, when the opportunity feels right, to go in and pitch myself for whatever it is that I think that I can serve them with. Right? And so that brings me into the second point, right? So the first point is reaching out and just building connections with dream clients. The second point is pitching yourself. We. I know I can see you on the other side of my microphone. I know I'm in here in my office right now. It's just me and my computer and my dogs, but I feel like I can see you. I can see your face and I know when I say the word pitch, you cringe like I know it, because I know that putting ourselves out there and pitching ourselves for things can feel so daunting, so overwhelming, so scary. We're like Chris. I don't want to come across as like icky or weird or have someone like think that I'm just trying to get something from them. Right. There's a. There's often a lot of feelings that come up when I talk about pitching ourselves for opportunities, but I want you to think about it this way if you aren't offering like services that you know will be amazingly beneficial for dream clients, they might not put the pieces together that you could be the perfect person to help them right, like I just I.
Speaker 1:
One of the things I work on a lot with clients is we have to get comfortable inviting people into our offers and we can have a whole separate conversation on if you don't feel confident inviting people into your offers. It could be that you don't feel 100% confident in your offers. Maybe the price point feels off, maybe there's something in the package or in the offer that you have a little bit of resistance to or don't fully love, but you just haven't taken the time to tweak the package like. The whole thing with our offers is we need to feel like we are so confident in them that like they are Package purposefully in a way where they include things that we know will be so beneficial for our dream clients and, if we can feel that way, inviting people into your offers Instead of it feeling like you're just trying to sell them on something, we're able to better flip it into a way of, oh my gosh, this would help them so much by X, y, z, right, thinking about if you're a wedding photographer in your building connections with planners. Right, you might think, oh my gosh, I could do this incredible behind the scenes shoot. We could set up a mini styled shoot with this planner and I could really capture the essence of just how much work she puts in behind the scenes the day of a wedding, and that would be so helpful for her to be able to share that with her clients. Or you could just like think you know what actually her brand as a planner is really bright and colorful shoot photographs, really bold In kind of intense color weddings, and I noticed that her headshots are neutral, right like. They just like don't match her brand. I could really Service her business in an amazing way by creating these beautiful, bold, bright headshots. That will better reflect her business to her clients, and so her clients will be more likely to book her because her brand feels aligned right, like.
Speaker 1:
There are so many ways that we can build connections and pitch ourselves and offer our services to our dream clients. If we just let ourselves get a little bit creative and figure out what is it that I could offer that would really greatly benefit this dream client of mine. And again, there's so many ways that you can do this. Something that I have been doing is that it's been a dream of mine to photograph retreats and I'm talking like really intimate retreats, right? I mentioned earlier my dream clients are kind of spiritual, they love being outside, they love grounding themselves, they love doing the internal work, and so yoga retreat, spiritual retreats, right, all of that is so in line with my dream clients, and so I have been actively pitching myself for retreats. That's been a point of focus for me this month and I'm so excited to share that.
Speaker 1:
As I'm recording this and as this is going live, you might be listening to it I am on my way to Malibu to photograph a retreat and it just kind of happened. Right, but it would be. It would have happened right, but it wouldn't have happened if I wouldn't have done the reaching out, the building connections to pitching myself. None of that would have happened because no one would have known that this was something that I want to do, and so getting really comfortable pitching ourselves to these dream sessions that we want to be doing more of. And I also want you to think of there's other ways that we can think about speaking directly to these clients, right, so we can pitch to them, of course, but I think another thing that we can do is just speak directly to them, both on our Instagram posts and on our blog. We really want to think about how can my posts add like mega value to these dream clients. So I want you to think about who are your dream clients? I kind of identified mine, right, so I'll just use that as an example.
Speaker 1:
Well, if my dream clients, if some of them, include yoga instructors, bar fitness instructors, life coaches, things like that, I want to write that down and then figure out what specific questions can I answer for these clients? Right, like I'm going to get really into the weeds of, if I were a health fitness coach and I was looking for a brand session, what are some of the questions I'd have? Well, one of the questions would be do I have to have part of the photo shoot in a gym? Should it be all outside? What types of props should I use? Do I need to bring models for the session? Just start to turn your wheels around. What are the questions that they have and how can I create content that speaks directly to answering those questions? So that way, when I'm reaching out and building connections with these dream clients, when I'm pitching myself to them, they can go back to my content, whether on Instagram or, even better, if it's blog posts that are going to directly help answer these questions and also build my authority. Because I'm speaking directly to them. They know that I'm the person for them, because I'm purposely creating content for them. And all of this I want to say when you're doing these things right.
Speaker 1:
I know that it can feel scary to put yourself out there. Believe me, I know, I know it can feel a little bit daunting, but I want you to remember the more that you can actually do the things that light you up, the more that you can photograph sessions that you just absolutely love, that bring you to life, that just spark your energy so high, the more that you can spend time doing those things, as opposed to how much time do we spend behind the scenes and on the back end stuff that our business, that work, does not light us up in the same way when we're actually doing these dream shoots with these dream clients that we love, when we are in that energy, the energy that we bring to the rest of our business changes. And so I want you to remember that, even if you are pitching yourself, if you're offering a discount for a limited time for this one particular dream client, or if you're offering a collaboration or a swap of some sort, like whatever it is that you're doing, sometimes we can get really in our heads about how we're doing it wrong. Oh well, I should be charging this, or I should be getting this, or I should write all of the shoulds start to fill our brain and and honestly take up space, and I want you to just if it feels right for you, right if this genuinely feels like something you are so excited about doing live in that energy. Let that session, let that dream client, bring in that revitalized spark and energy into your business, and I promise you that the way that you show up, the energy you have for the rest of your business is going to change. So, as a quick recap, I want to share what we talked about in today's episode, and this is your opportunity. Whether you've been maybe editing or folding clothes or doing dishes, I want to give you space to be able to write these things down, whether it's in your notes app on your phone or maybe it's on a sticky note, but commit to trying out at least one of these strategies this week.
Speaker 1:
So, firstly, find someone that you're already connected with or that you're not connected with, who would be a dream client, and either start to build a relationship with them if there's someone that you're not currently connected or have a relationship with or if they are someone you're connected with, reach out to them, actually pitch yourself and offer a collaboration of some sort to be able to get you again doing the thing that really lights you up. I also would encourage you dream into what your favorite types of shoots might be, and it's okay if you haven't yet photographed something like it, right, similar to how I haven't photographed a retreat, yet I was still pitching myself for it because I know that that's something that's on my dream list of things to shoot. So start saving profiles of people on Instagram and build those connections with them so that you can then come and pitch yourselves for those opportunities and also get really clear on who your dream clients are. Write out five potential posts that you can share over the next few weeks. That will really add value to them and help them see why you're the photographer for them. And here's the thing these strategies work and they do build momentum.
Speaker 1:
And as you're thinking about how can I implement this in my business right, maybe you are just feeling like I'm not really sure how to take this model and adapt it for me. I want to emphasize there is no right or wrong way to do any of this. Usually, the things that block clients the most is overthinking and getting stuck in their what ifs and their fears. And if you want more support, if you want more clarity around how you can implement these strategies inside of your business, I'd love to have you join us inside of Amplify, my group coaching program. It's for women business owners, specifically photographers, and once you're in, we can dive straight into creating a sharing strategy, a connection strategy, a relationship building strategy that helps you call in those next dream clients. So you can find the link to join us inside Amplify in the show notes below, and I just want to thank you so much for joining me today for this episode. I know how valuable your time is and I am just so excited to continue to support you even more as your business grows.