This Can't Be That Hard

Client communication is a perennial challenge: no matter how clear your recommendations and reminders are, there are always going to be those clients who just don't pay attention. But that doesn't mean we get to stop trying!

That's why I loved this Stories and Shorties strategy from Renee Bowen. Renee is a photographer, a coach, and the host of the Tried & True with a Dash of Woo podcast, and she's seen and heard it all: clients acting surprised by pricing they were given ahead of time, asking questions that were answered three times in the email, etc.<...

I'll admit it... SEO tools sometimes make my eyes glaze over. I was okay with Google Analytics for a while, but then it changed and I lost track of where anything lived. I suspect I'm not the only one.

So when I heard Melissa Arlena of Picture Perfect Rankings talking about how if she had to pick just ONE SEO tool to use, it would be Google Search Console, I knew I wanted to have her explain it in plain language... not just for me, but for all of us who would rather be shooting or relaxing...

The busy season can be a lot. Sessions start to blur together, the inbox never quite empties, and - for a lot of photographers - this is the time when photography starts to feel more like work than fun.

As normal as that feeling is, it's also something to watch out for: if you notice your creative spark flickering, it's important to pay attention so that it doesn't sputter out completely.

The trick is that when you're busy, it often feels like you don't have time to pay attention, much less do anything about it. 

I've met Shaun Austin Gordon at several industry events over the years. He's a former wedding photographer and the founder/owner of KISS Books, which makes gorgeous professional albums. This past spring, we got to talking about the impact we have as photographers, and he shared an idea he's working on that really got my wheels turning.

In this Stories and Shorties episode, Shaun is sharing:  

The first episode I recorded with Lindsay Herkert back in February of 2025 has been one of my most popular episodes to date. Lindsay has a way of taking something as intimidating (and boring) as Google Ads and making it feel doable and even fun... which is no small feat!

Today she's back with a Stories & Shorties episode about what's changed - and what hasn't - in the search world since AI hit the scene, and this one is a must-listen.

Lindsay's take is refreshingly calm. She's not panicking about AI overviews or longer, more conversational...

When I asked my friend Rebecca Hunnicutt to contribute to our Stories and Shorties series, I didn't give her any specific direction - she's an educator and long-time family, maternity, newborn, and school photographer in Portland, Oregon, so I knew she'd share something good.  

What I didn't anticipate was that she'd send me FOUR somethings - four separate ideas, each of which could have been its own full episode - and fit them all into under five minutes.

So I'm doing this episode a little differently! You'll hear Rebecca's four tips first, and then I'm c...

Every photographer I know would love more referrals, but they're all looking for them in the same place: their past clients. Of course, past clients can be a wonderful source of referrals, but the timing isn't always right, and we don't want to ask too often (or too forcefully) and risk making our clients uncomfortable.

 That's why I wanted to bring Emily Kim Huynh back on the show. Emily's background is in tech and business, and her outside-the-photography-box thinking has led her to a strategy that brings in bookings from a different kind of referral entirely: other b...

90% of client confusion and problems - including low sales averages - can be traced back to things that happened (or perhaps didn't happen) much earlier in the process.

That's exactly what my guest this week unpacks. Ina Jalil is a pet photographer based in Canberra, Australia, and she coaches pet photographers globally on booking more premium clients consistently.

Even though Ina's strategy comes from in-person sales for pet photography, this works no matter your niche or business model, because it's really about working backward from an outcome you want to change.

In this...

When Lydia Fine suggested client privacy as a topic for her Stories & Shorties episode, I almost said no... it honestly felt too big and important for such a short episode.

Privacy is one of those issues that's expanding fast, in the world generally and in our industry specifically, and it deserves way more than a quick conversation. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized Lydia had something genuinely useful to hand you right now, even if the bigger conversation is still ahead of us.

In this episode, Lydia walks through:

Being your own boss comes with a lot of big benefits, but there are challenges, too... and one of the surprising ones is how hard it is to get things done when you're the only one managing your time.

On this week's Stories & Shorties episode, Maddie Peschong is sharing her secret weapon: Marketing Mondays: a block of time every single week that's just for marketing, no matter what else is going on.

In this episode, she's sharing: 

This week, we're shifting gears. The busy season is upon us, and from now straight through the holidays, we're all going to be chasing our tails in one way or another - with marketing, with sessions, or even just with general pre- and mid-holiday chaos. So instead of hitting you each week with a longer, meatier episode, I've put together a series we're calling "Stories & Shorties." These are bite-sized tips and stories from some of my favorite photographers and educators, intended to give you those little boosts of business-focused inspiration you need each week.  

We're kicking things o...

Here's something  see all the time (and have fully been guilty of myself): you run a marketing campaign, it does what it does, and by the time it's over, you don't want to think about it any more... you're just onto the next thing. You skip the debrief. You promise yourself you'll remember what worked. But then six months later you're reinventing a wheel you've already built two or three times.

To close out our back-to-school marketing challenge, I brought on my friend Tiffany Crenshaw from Animal House Photography and Tiffany Crenshaw Education. Tiffany - a business o...

You know that feeling when you get a client email, a phone call, or even just an inquiry and your heart starts racing... Maybe it's excitement, maybe it's fear, or maybe it's a combination of the two, but according to our nervous system, it's all the same.

We talk a lot on this podcast about what to say to fill your calendar. What we don't talk about enough is how what's happening in your body when you respond tends to show up in your words whether you mean it to or not.

That's exactly why...

Most restaurant menus have a handful of apps, a handful of entrees, and a handful of desserts: enough to give people choices and accommodate dietary restrictions, but not so many that people get overwhelmed.

So why do most of us limit our photography "menu" to one or two items? When your business only has one package, one price, the offer is take it or leave it: you're handing hesitant clients an easy way to say no by saying nothing at all.

In this episode, I'm breaking down:

It's August, which means it's probably feels way too early to think about Black Friday, holiday cards, or filling your calendar for Q4... but that's exactly why now is the time to do it!

Every year I watch the same thing happen: photographers coast through summer, and then the second Starbucks rolls out everyone's favorite seasonal latte, panic sets in: empty calendar, no plan, reactive scramble. This month on the podcast, we're running something we're calling the Back to School Marketing Challenge, and this episode is step one: getting organized.

My marketing director Dayna and...

Here's a pattern I've noticed: photographers spend months chasing a version of growth that sounds right, but never actually sits right. Typically this is because they've heard advice or purchased a course that may be well-intentioned, but doesn't really align with their unique circumstances or goals. Before they know it, they've spent their valuable time, money, and energy heading in the wrong direction, and now have to spend more of each of those things to get themselves back on track.

I'm wrapping up our Beyond the Bottleneck series this week, and although this episode may sound a...

You can streamline and automate every last thing in your business, but there are still only so many clients you can take on because there's only one of you... unless you build an associate team.

This week, I'm sharing my conversation with Ali Leigh, a Minneapolis-based wedding photographer who has been running an associate team for almost a decade. Ali was an open book, sharing the actual nuts and bolts:

My dad had a "system" for organizing his office. You could ask him for anything - any book or file or piece of paper - and he'd be able to locate it in 30 seconds. The problem? No one else had any idea what his system was, and if he wasn't available, nothing could be located.

Maybe your office is super organized, maybe your desktop is as clean as the day you got your computer, but I'd be willing to bet that somewhere in your business, there are "systems" that only you have the keys to.

...

There's an old story about a fisherman who keeps going out every day with holes in his net. Even though he knows the net leaks, he doesn't think he can afford to take the time off from fishing to mend the holes. I've been that fisherman more times than I'd like to admit, and I'd be willing to bet there's a good chance you have been too.

At some point in business, most of us will get in our own way. Of course that bottleneck isn't obvious - instead, it shows up as exhaustion, as the feeling...

This last episode in our Summer Essentials series dates back to 2021, but don't let its vintage fool you: it's message is as true - and important - now as it was then: most of your clients don't actually know what they want. 

Here's what we're chatting about:

This conversation with copywriter and brand strategist Courtney Fanning changed how I think about copywriting. The premise is simple (if a little uncomfortable): we all instinctively write for the type of consumer we are, and if there are four types, that means we're only effectively speaking to maybe 25% of our potential clients.

Courtney shares a framework she adapted from Spanx founder Sara Blakely that breaks buyers into four types: the director, the socializer, the relator, and the thinker. Each one needs something different from your website and your copy in order to feel confident enough to reach...

There's this cookbook my mom had when I was growing up called More With Less. The whole premise was: here are big, satisfying meals made with humble ingredients. It was on her shelf my entire childhood, and honestly... it's basically how I think about business strategy too.

This episode is one of our most popular ever, and I'm re-sharing it as part of our Summer Essentials series because right now - in this slower-before-it-gets-busier stretch - is a great time to re-engage your most valuable marketing asset: your past clients.

In this episode, I’m sh...

This month, we're taking a little break from new episodes and digging into our (big) archive to reshare some of our past faves. Today's replay originally aired in 2022, but if anything, it feels MORE relevant now than it did then: how do you keep showing up and promoting your business when the news is heavy. How do you send out a sales email or post about your upcoming mini sessions when those things seem trivial at best compared to what's happening in the world?

Here's what I'm covering:

I was talking to a photographer friend who - by every outside measure - is killing it. On the inside, though? She admitted she was struggling with feelings of self-doubt and stress about the future of her business.

I think a lot of us carry around a mental image of some summit - a destination that we will reach where things in our business will finally feel settled and all the hard work will be behind us. But the longer I do this, the more convinced I am that there is no such destination. And in a...

Having concerns about AI isn't a bad thing: it means you're thinking critically about an issue that warrants critical thought. But nor do concerns mean you have to (or should) avoid AI altogether.

The issues surrounding this world-changing technology are big, and I didn't want to gloss over them: What does "authenticity" mean in the AI era? What happens to your brain when you outsource thinking? What is the environmental cost of data centers? Are the companies building these tools considering anything beyond their bottom line?

So in this episode, I'm opening the whole can...

I remember the exact moment I first heard about ChatGPT. I was walking my dog, talking to my dad on the phone, and he mentioned this thing he'd heard about on NPR - some AI tool where you could just type any question and get an answer. My reaction? "Huh. Why would I need that when I have Google?"

That was not that long ago. Wild.

Just a couple of short years later, and AI is literally everywhere. But a lot of photographers I talk to are genuinely conflicted about using it - and I...

Okay, I'll just say it: I am an Airtable evangelist. I have been for years. It runs my episode archive, my client data, my business dashboard, my production workflows - honestly, it runs a lot of my personal life too. And I know that sounds like something I'm pitching, but I genuinely make zero money on Airtable. I just really, really believe in this tool.

The problem is that what Airtable does can be hard to explain - and that makes a lot of photographers click around in it for a few minutes, get confused, and close...

Tech tools and software are an easy thing to accumulate. Most of us add tools when we find them, promising ourselves we'll dive in "as soon as we have time. Before long, we've got a giant tech stack that just kind of happened.

In this episode, I'm talking about the costs of "tech debt" - not just the financial expense, but the minutes, hours, even cumulative days that we all spend on workarounds, redos, and tweaks, all the while thinking, "I'm sure I had a tool that was supposed to do that!"

We'll also cover...

Ever wonder what it actually looks like to build a profitable photography business on lower prices and higher volume? That's what this conversation with Naomi Boyer is all about.

After a rough year in 2024 where inquiries were down and the business just felt like an uphill battle, Naomi decided to try going all in on something she'd been developing on the side: school and event photography built on a high-volume, streamlined model.

The result? Was so great that she shifted her entire business model.

This episode gets into the real mechanics of making...

What if the most profitable thing in your business isn't your highest-priced offer?

That's the question behind this episode - and the answer might surprise you. I brought in two photographers, Jenn Chen and Allison Maxwell, who have each built something I find genuinely fascinating: a lower-priced, accessible offer that sits at the front of their business and funnels clients into their higher-ticket work. Not as a loss leader or freebie, but as an actual profit center that also happens to grow their audience and warm up ideal clients.

Jenn runs a family and newborn...

You know that moment when you look at your bank statement and realize you're still paying for software you stopped using three months ago? Yep. We've all been there.

Profitability isn't just about what you charge - it's about what you keep. And for most photographers, there's money unnecessarily leaking out of the business every single month that a little attention could stop.

In this episode, I'll walk you through my strategic approach to evaluating business expenses - not as a slash-and-burn exercise, but as a way to make your spending actually work for your...

What if "Just raise your prices" is the wrong advice for right now?

That's a question a lot of photographers have been sitting with lately - and honestly, it's one worth taking seriously. When budgets feel tight and bookings feel uncertain, the standard advice can start to feel a little tone-deaf. But here's the thing: there are real, strategic ways to increase your profitability without ever touching your prices.

In this episode, I'm revisiting a framework I introduced way back in Episode 38 - the Donkey, Workhorse, and Unicorn business models - and looking at it...

What if the reason your marketing isn't converting has nothing to do with your content... and everything to do with the part that comes after it?

In this episode, Annemie and Dayna get a little theatrical to break down one of the most important (and most avoided) distinctions in your business: the difference between marketing and selling, and why you genuinely can't have one without the other.

Using Wicked as their framework, they make the case that Glinda (your marketing) gets all the love, while Elphaba (your selling) gets an unfair bad rap. But here's...

Picture this: you're cruising down the highway, passing billboard after billboard without really registering any of them. Then hunger strikes, and suddenly that McDonald's sign is the only thing you can see.

That's how marketing works: you're not introducing yourself once and hoping for the best. You're showing up again and again, so that when your client's _"I need a photographer!"_ moment finally hits, yours is the name that comes to mind.

But here's the catch: even when someone is ready to pull off at the next exit and book, their brain starts throwing up...

For a long time, SEO gave us a set of rules to follow. There were a lot of rules, and following them all wasn't ever _simple_, but at least the playbook was fairly clear. These days, though, the landscape has shifted…

With the proliferation of AI tools and search algorithms, the way people find information online is evolving quickly. The rules around SEO are changing as well, and many photographers are wondering what actually matters now.

This week I’m joined by Corey Potter of Fuel Your Photos. Corey is a former wedding photographer who now...

If you’re anything like most photographers, the thought of walking into a fundraiser, hosting an event, or introducing yourself at a networking mixer makes you want to put on your soft pants and climb back into bed. Which is exactly why I’m betting the rock quadrant of your marketing system is probably the one that needs the most attention.

The truth is, in-person marketing can be one of the fastest ways to build real momentum in your business… but that requires finding opportunities that feel aligned and doable!

For this episode, I went back t...

As the slow season fog lifts and spring energy kicks in, it can be tempting to try to chase the perfect marketing strategy… only to end up overwhelmed, second-guessing every move, and wondering why marketing always feels like a gamble.

This month, we're doing something brand new on the podcast called March Marketing Madness, and for the first time ever, we have a guest host! This Can't Be That Hard's very own marketing director, Dayna (who many of you know from the Consistency Club) is taking over the mic to walk us through a fun, practical way bu...

If you want your photography to be more than a hobby, getting your finances organized isn’t just a “nice to have” - it’s the foundation for a profitable, sustainable business. If you’ve ever promised yourself that “next year will be different” when tax season rolls around, this episode is for you.

Today, I’m joined by Tiffany Bastian, a no-nonsense accountant with over 20 years of experience who works exclusively with photographers across the US. Tiffany’s not a photographer herself, but she’s made it her mission to help creative entrepreneurs ditch the shame, get organized, and f...

Organization is not just about what your clients see… it's also about how your business feels to you.

In this episode, we dive deeper on our organization theme by looking at internal systems… the behind the scenes structure that keeps everything running smoothly.

I’m joined by Stacey Rolfe of Tog Hub, who helps photographers build streamlined, sustainable systems inside their CRMs. Stacey shares why burnout isn't usually about talent or motivation; instead, it's about capacity. When your schedule, pricing, and workflows are built around someone else’s life instead of your own, things start to crack...

Organization isn’t just about tidy desks and color coded planners… it’s about how your business feels to your clients. This episode is part two of our organization series, and we’re digging into external organization… the systems, workflows, and processes your clients experience from inquiry to delivery.

I’m joined by systems strategist and photography specific VA Erin Wissig, whose work helps photographers take their workflows out of their heads and turn them into clear, repeatable systems. We talk about the difference between being organized behind the scenes and creating a client experience that feels confident, p...