EP 75: Quarter 4 Confessions: The Goals We Forgot We Set

Q4 2025 update

Melissa Arlena: [00:00:00] Hey guys, so we are back with one of our quarterly update episodes. Um, so funny story. Uh, I got the idea for us to do these episodes from, um, some podcast friends of ours, Sabrina Ke Ebhart, and Coley, James and Alice. And I literally just recorded a podcast episode with Sabrina that I think, um, is airing tomorrow.

So this comes out on Monday. I think hers is coming out tomorrow, Tuesday. So go check her out. It’s the shoot it Straight podcast. Um, she’s an amazing photographer and, uh, coach and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, so, uh, I was like, oh, this is good timing because we’re recording our quarterly update. Um, these are funny too, ’cause Alice and I sometimes forget what our goals were.

Alison: Absolutely. Yes, we do. I did. I was like, oh, I, I about that one.

Melissa Arlena: But she did check stuff off. I know that too. So, um, yeah, so let’s go back, Alison, why don’t you start, what were, what were your quarterly Q3 goals?

Alison: Okay, so back once upon a [00:01:00] time I intended to get my associate shooter on my website, and that was the one that was long lost, forgotten. Still a great idea, but very much bare, bare bottom of the barrel. Um, I still wanted to use, we had intended to use my, um, my associate this fall last week was. A crazy full week.

Fall break is a very busy time. Um, I guess fall break is a western thing, like a lot of schools do a fall break,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: spring break, so a

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: off of school. I had

Melissa Arlena: Yeah, my best friend her, she’s in Kansas and she was talking about like having to find a camp for her kid, and I was like, what are you talking about? Fall break. So yeah.

Alison: week off. So I had three sessions last week and I had a couple sessions before, the weeks before that, um, zero this week. So that’s kind

Melissa Arlena: Breathing room.

Alison: breathing room.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Um, and I was hoping to get to use my associate, but she was full. She had a whole bunch of appointments and things going on for her family.

So the need to get the associate was low, although. are coming. We should probably try that. Um, and, but I did, [00:02:00] and I, I hosted that NAP CP event. It was a very chill, we just went to lunch with the same group of people that are kind of the old faithful group of photographers out here. Um.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Uh, but one big thing I did do, and I just did this in the last six weeks, um, was I hired a VA to help me and I’m so pumped for it.

Um, it’s been, it, it’s been a learning curve, hiring a va, going into an employer mindset and

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: how and why and like having to. Having to not just execute a task, but think about all the logins,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: app, understanding where to find things that go into executing any single task has been a learning curve for me.

Um, lots of loom videos, lots of,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: SOPs, but that’s, that’s what my VA’s creating. I’d just be like, here, this is what I do, and she goes and runs with it and asks me all these questions where I don’t think about. Gaps in [00:03:00] explanations, and she’s like, but can you confirm this? Can you confirm that? I’m like,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. You know what’s funny? It reminds me of like when your kids are little and the first time you’re teaching them how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich themselves.

Alison: yeah.

Melissa Arlena: Because you don’t wanna do it anymore.

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: it’s like painful. And the first couple of times you’re like, I should’ve just done it because now it’s worse and it’s cleanup and all of this.

But then eventually your oldest is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all the kids, and you’re like, oh,

Alison: Exactly, and, and the reason, and I actually decided to hire through a photography based VA company called Wedding Workflows. And

Melissa Arlena: Hmm.

Alison: did that over hiring a friend, ’cause last spring I intended to just hire somebody and teach ’em how to do it. The VA comes. With an understanding of how to be a va. They, this company is training them in some basic Trello, Gchat, uh, loom, all these different things that they kind of come with a base knowledge of. Um, and so my girl is like, oh, I’m gonna make an SSOP for this standard [00:04:00] operating procedure. She’s like, and so she’s got this master document of links, resources and everything that I, I created and threw at her, and she made. like that’s, that’s where the value of, of hiring through a company and not just paying direct really does come,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: So I’m gonna put the links in the show notes like you guys, you get if you wanna, if you wanna try the VA out wedding workflows, um, you get a hundred dollars off your first month if you decide to use my code.

So I’m gonna put that link in there. Um,

Melissa Arlena: And I think pricing wise, it was like really reasonable too, like.

Alison: reasonable because

Melissa Arlena: Like there’s no excuse.

Alison: Yeah. Um, I looked at hiring, um, some mill, spouse based, uh, VA companies that were not photography specific. They were admin, general admin. Um, and it was gonna be twice as much.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: was, this was fantastic. Um, mentoring opened back up.

We’ve got, um, I’ve had so many discovery calls on the calendar, just, um. Talking with people, other photographers, looking at, um, some of the transitions and pivots they may be moving. [00:05:00] So that’s back up Alison bell.co if you’re interested for that free 15. Um, and then I did not have to do some of the admin things to get my BA up and running.

I did not have to close out or redo my AI in Canva. I just gave her my email access, which. May or may not come back around to bite me in the butt. Um,

Melissa Arlena: Uh

Alison: done doing those mini sessions and I freaking love it. I’ve had the, the kind of like anticipated friends and neighbors go, oh, like, when are you doing your minis?

And I was like, I’m not. And they’re like,

Melissa Arlena: mm-hmm.

Alison: not hiring Allison then. And I’m okay with that. I

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: But hurt about it. There is a sense of freedom and relaxation that every Saturday morning is my own. I’m not battling evening it, it’s just. it, and honestly like it is, it’s a sense of relief.

This is like the last thing that I have actually let

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: I’ve been doing this since I’ve been doing many sessions forever, right? But it

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: where I was holding onto it as a, an affordable offer for friends and family, like

Melissa Arlena: Right. Yeah. [00:06:00] Yeah.

Alison: like that. And

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: intention since 2023 when I switched, or 2022 when I switched to IPS,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: and this is the first time I’m deliberately like, Nope, not doing it.

Melissa Arlena: I have a funny story, so,

Alison: a photographer who was doing it and

Melissa Arlena: uh,

Alison: I’m, this is the last time I’m ever doing it. She is

Melissa Arlena: yeah.

Alison: is, she’s been in Hawaii for a long time and she’s having the same struggle I do at a different price point than I am in a different business structure. I was like,

Melissa Arlena: Uh.

Alison: wow, you just confirmed, and, and I think I, my experience sharing that, I’m not doing ’em.

She’s like, okay, cool. Like we’re both dropping it like it’s hot,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah,

Alison: it.

Melissa Arlena: I’m not, I’m not doing many sessions. And so my funny story is our, a photographer we hired, um, when we were back in Northern Virginia to do an extended family. Shoot for my side of the family. She posted her mini sessions and I sent the link to my sister because I didn’t wanna drive up to Fredericksburg and do many sessions to do, ’cause she to do photos of her family.

And it’s not that I don’t wanna take pictures of my sister’s family, it’s not that. But it’s like if I was gonna do it and we were gonna do the whole rigor mor, then I would’ve gone ahead and re. [00:07:00] You know, opened it to past clients and stuff like that and booked up more things, and I was like, I don’t want to, so I sent it to her.

I was like, Hey, if you’re looking for family photos, you should go check out Amanda. She’s got a minis. And she did, she booked with her.

Alison: Nice. There it is. There it is. Well

Melissa Arlena: I’m a terrible sister, but I’ve done free sessions for her since her wedding and stuff. So I think we’re, I think I’m, even now like, I think we’re good.

Alison: you’re totally fine. Um, and then on the photography side, July was full enough. I didn’t get the count for that. I had at least three or five sessions. I can’t remember. My

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: month is to have four, somewhere between four and six sessions a month.

Eight in the, in the busy season. Um,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: was five and September was zero. And I’m okay with that. I mean, I would’ve liked to had one or two, but

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: the busy summer season and just

Melissa Arlena: September was an odd month. Uh, you know, and stuff like. Yeah.

Alison: and

Melissa Arlena: Um,

Alison: of normal. Um, it’s the normal rhythm. All the schools pick back up, and

Melissa Arlena: mm-hmm.

Alison: drops off a cliff here,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Alison: explainable and reasonable. So what about you?[00:08:00]

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Yeah. So my goals were to focus on fall marketing for our done for you and group coaching. And actually I ended up, um, I hired a funnel coach that I’m working with, and so she is helping me build out a better funnel for our group coaching. And then I know that’ll kind of lead to done for you.

’cause there’s always people who are like, well, this sounds great, but I don’t wanna do it. So, um, but it’s one of those things that I’ve kind of piecemealed together over the years. So like I understand it and like I told her, I was like, look, I have all the ingredients. I just don’t have the right recipe.

And so she has done this for a long time. She’s based out of Australia. She has a great podcast. Um, I cannot remember what it’s called right now, but we’ll put it in the show notes. Yeah. But her name’s Jessica Tutton and um, she does stuff with face with, um, Facebook ads and then like Evergreen funnels.

And so that was kind of where I was like, yeah, I need some help here on that. And, um. And so, yeah, I just got my webinar recorded yesterday, so I’m very excited about that, that that thing is done.

Alison: And

Melissa Arlena: Although I got to one. Yeah.

Alison: to emphasize the SEO coach hired a [00:09:00] coach,

Melissa Arlena: Yes, yes. Absolutely. Yeah.

Alison: hiring our own coaches. Just

Melissa Arlena: No, no, I, yeah, this was one of those where I was like, I need some help with this, and I need someone who understands it and I’m paying for her expertise to look everything over and, and stuff like that.

Alison: numbers and, and understand and have a completely different perspective.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so when, when, when we’re done with the group coaching and getting a, a funnel going for that, then um, the plan is to do the same thing for the blogging club and get that going. I do have a new, and I’m looking here, I have like promoted more. I have a new sales page. Um, I have, I have a new email sequence, but interestingly enough, I actually, uh, had a meeting with Shannon Bondy.

She’s been on our podcast before about emails and, uh, and so she and I went through. My welcome sequence and looked at subject lines and click rates and open rates. And it was actually really interesting to like have to sit with her as an expert on that and have, and get her expertise on things. And it was one of those where it was [00:10:00] No, no.

And it was like I was able to kind of go away with like, oh, uh, like I think by the time we got a third of the way through the, the sequence, I was like, oh. Based on what I’ve already learned from you, oh, that’s got, you know, a low open rate, I need to readjust that subject line. Or, oh, that one has a low click rate.

I either need to add in, you know, make it more bold of where they need to click, or maybe I need to change the call to action. So it was kind of neat to kinda learn that stuff and, and do that.

Alison: Subject lines are so, um. Wishy-washy or like urethral to me. Like, okay, so it’s not working this, so you’re gonna change the subject line, but how do you know the new one’s getting any better or different? You know what I

Melissa Arlena: Well. That’s what I’ll figure out because I’m gonna basically duplicate this and then go in and change those subject lines, and then I’ll be able to compare and see like, oh, is it getting better open rates now with this new subject line? Um, and I was able to see on some of mine, like, I was like, oh yeah, that’s a boring subject line.

I think it was like behind the scenes of the blogging club. And I’m like, yeah, that didn’t, that didn’t go over very well. It needs to be like a [00:11:00] little bit more catchy and hook driven than that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I have also like figuring out plan for the rest of the year. ’cause I don’t wanna work too much in December, you know, still kind of working on that.

Um, I think. You know, revenue wise and stuff like that, that’s always the, the case. But, um, I’ve got it worked out on my, my big catch Moyer calendar of like, what we need, you know, what’s left to book and everything. So, so I think that, and then Black Friday, I’m still kind of on the fence with that one. Um, I think I might just do a normal sale and just do, like, I might just do it over Black Friday, like Thursday to Monday and just like, Hey, it’s going out on email.

I’m not gonna, I’m not, here’s what I don’t wanna do, y’all. So last year I did the whole like email sequence. Um, I have like paid people for email sequences before, like I’ve done the whole nine yards and all of the work and all of the effort, and it just doesn’t feel like the juice has been worth the squeeze.

And so I, I’m kind of gonna call it this year that this year I’m gonna put in the least amount of effort [00:12:00] possible and watch. I will probably have better sales than I’ve had before because of it.

Alison: Or it falls on its face and you really don’t do anything ever again,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Or it falls on its face. And I’m like, well, that’s okay. I didn’t do much for it anyway, so,

Alison: there you go.

Melissa Arlena: uh, but I just, I don’t wanna spend weeks emailing. I don’t wanna like, be doing all of that stuff and change. So I’m like, we’re just, it’s gonna be one sale on the shop and we’ll go from there. But, uh, yeah, so that’s kind of my Q3 goals.

Alison: Man, I think I probably need to add that to my Q4 goals. Am I gonna do Black Friday? Photography wise? Absolutely not. I am not doing anything. My clientele is different and weird in that way. People,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: you know, on my wait list have either already been here or are coming at a very certain time where they, you know, timing wise, they can’t really take advantage.

And if they’re

Melissa Arlena: Will you run a print print sale though? Like Black Friday print sales?

Alison: Oh, that’s true. I’m already doing holiday print sales, so if you

Melissa Arlena: I think I need, I probably need to do that.

Alison: ones.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah,

Alison: a,

Melissa Arlena: that.

Alison: to my Q4 list

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Actually I wanna add that to mine too. ’cause I, I do love with [00:13:00] pick time that it’s easy they put the galleries back online for you. So I may do one of those and we’ll see if anything comes on that one.

Um,

Alison: you know, I’m not gonna do anything. I’ve seen some really great ones where, you know, photography wise, where you do, you know, book now and get any session until

Melissa Arlena: yeah. Yeah.

Alison: 31st at a hun.

Melissa Arlena: Right, right.

Alison: people are either gonna book or they’re not, and I’m not gonna lose money out on it

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Well, and like you said, that doesn’t work for you because you’re, you know, it’s destination and stuff, so,

Alison: exactly.

So, um, but coaching, where aside, well, we’ll just add that to my list

Melissa Arlena: yeah. Yeah. You never know. I mean, that’s a good one. I think for a Black Friday sale for coaching and stuff, that’s all, that’s always a good, good thing there. I, I will say all, I don’t run any Black Friday sales on our, on our done for you services. That’s always a question I get. I’m like, sorry, sorry guys.

Those, those have a lot of stuff with them, so, no.

Alison: so well, at the time of recording right now, we are late October, so we’re

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: a month into Q4. But we

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: Q4 goals,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: late than never. We do encourage you guys to do this yourself. Like, [00:14:00] and it is nice, like as we were, Melissa was saying at the top of the show, uh, it was eyeopening for me.

I forgot about some of my

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: So, um, all right. So

Melissa Arlena: Well, it’s always good to sit down and plan ’em out. Yeah.

Alison: yeah. So I think wise for me, like I said, four to six sessions a month make me feel pretty satisfied and full.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: slower months. Um.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: But, um, so far for October, I’ve had five.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: That’s fall break, uh, as at its peak November.

We’ve

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: secured already. Um, and then December, I have one already, and so hopefully we get some more with those holidays. The holidays are really tricky though because I do, I want to work on the weekend of a holiday? Not really. Do I

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: Yes. You know, think

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: week.

We’ve got Monday, Tuesday,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: I’ve already got. I think two of those booked, maybe one of those booked. Um, but Thursday, Friday are out. ’cause I’m not gonna get out Friday morning after a Thursday evening. So do I want to, am I willing to do a Saturday [00:15:00] morning?

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: But last year I did a weekend surcharge because I don’t normally shoot weekends.

Melissa Arlena: Oh yeah.

Alison: and then, and I’m definitely not shooting on a weekend evening because the beach is gonna be way too crowded. I’m not doing that,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: doing that at all. It’s not gonna be worth the effort. But do I wanna do one? Do I want to do the sur surcharge or not? I don’t know that I ever actually secured somebody with a surcharge last year.

Um, so I don’t know. Is it worth it? Would I rather just get

Melissa Arlena: Um,

Alison: I don’t

Melissa Arlena: yeah, that’s one of those things I think like, let, if you are at two sessions and you really need the booking, then I wouldn’t do the surcharge. If you’re at four sessions and you’re like, well, another booking would be nice, I would do the surcharge

Alison: Yeah. Okay.

Melissa Arlena: because at that point, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Alison: that. And then same thing with the week of, between Christmas and New Year. So I’ve had so many inquiries of people coming in the 22nd or the 23rd of December,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: through the 28th, and you’ve

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Christmas Eve, Christmas into Saturday, Sunday in there, and then

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: then they can’t do the day get there because [00:16:00] they can’t do sunrise that day.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: and so I’ve already, I’ve probably had five or six inquiries for that week alone

Melissa Arlena: Uh.

Alison: like, it’s just really tough. So I’ll probably apply the same logic, like if I have openings, NINGs, I won’t do it. If I don’t, I will probably do a surcharge.

Um,

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: be nice, ’cause honestly nobody is going to be traveling. To Hawaii, those first two weeks of December school’s in

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: and they’re all just gonna wait to come that same week of

Melissa Arlena: Right.

Alison: the holidays. So we’ll see, I guess we’ll to be, to be determined.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: Um, and then of course I’m doing the print time, the pick time, print sales going on, and that’s

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Y’all sales have already gone out galleries from the year already gone online, so I was able to put anything from the last year or the last two years on. You get to choose. It’s super easy by date, by style, by print cost. So, you know, none of my mini sessions are on sale, but all of my full sessions are, if that makes sense. [00:17:00] for the business and coaching mentor, uh, side. I am working on creating a shop of, of some smaller items, some downloads that will be useful to you guys. Um, all the practical things, right? Like all the trackers, all the, all the

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: So small shop there. I probably need to start studying YouTube. We’re gonna put this podcast on YouTube, I’m gonna study

Melissa Arlena: I keep dressing up and blow drying my hair for these things so that you’ll, that we can record it and video goes onto YouTube.

Alison: think we’ve been recording video for nine months, or take some breaks in there. Um, and so some, some YouTube, SEO is is on the docket for, for me to figure out.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: I’ve upped my email game in the last three months when it comes to this stuff. I think I’m sending at least two emails at. I think my goal, I’m gonna, I’m steady at, at two.

I think we’re gonna maybe go for a third,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: here

Melissa Arlena: you send out a podcast email?

Alison: Yep. Every Monday a podcast email goes out.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: um, Wednesday ish,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: [00:18:00] another kind of mentoring centric email goes out. And so I think something else needs to go out. I’m just

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: to be con as consistent. We’ll see.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Alison: another touch point of like maybe hacks, tips.

I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ll see. Um, and then my va, I’m just gonna keep rolling with my va. She’s been doing so much good stuff, helping me get these episodes. Blogged.

Melissa Arlena: Hmm.

Alison: a very deep backlog of podcast episodes that are gonna go up on the website. And then once we get a nice headway there, uh, here in the next week, I’m gonna transition her to doing for practicing what we preach of taking those blog posts and creating some carousel graphics,

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: um, some Instagram and social blog posts, um, to just. and reuse the same content in multiple ways. So, and then you got me thinking about Black Friday sales for coaching. I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ll see guys, you, we’ll, we’ll need you to see if you’re listening before Black Friday, like Alison bell.co. We’ll see what I come up with. [00:19:00] So what about you?

What you got coming up?

Melissa Arlena: Um, so now that I’ve got my webinar recorded and my sales page and all of my funnel stuff there, um, it’s ads. So Facebook ads, getting those run up and running, and then like my business coach, my funnel coach has said like, it’s really just watching the numbers and then figuring out what converts and what doesn’t convert.

Um, and so that’ll be interesting ’cause I don’t think that, I feel like when it comes to SEO, like I, you can look at like how many times your website’s showing up, how many times people are clicking on it, and then kind of look at how many inquiries are you getting and figuring out what your, what your, um, your ratio is and stuff like, what’s your ratio of.

Book of inquiries to traffic, what’s your ratio of inquiries to bookings, that kind of thing. Um, and so now I’m gonna be looking at that more on like the sales side and the funnel side with ads. So I think that’ll just be something different. And then, like I said, starting on a new funnel for the blogging club.

Um, I think I’ve had a couple people have signed up recently and I’m like, I don’t even know how you guys signed up. Like, ’cause I didn’t, [00:20:00] like, I don’t have like an ad running right now. I mean, obviously I send out emails so, you know, they might have clicked on a link from there, but it just made me laugh.

Alison: them? You

Melissa Arlena: Um, oh, I do actually, I think I do ask how they found out. Yeah, I think I, I did add that because I was like, I just wanna know like.

Alison: well, I wanna know.

Melissa Arlena: I’ll have to look. I’ll have to look. But it is interesting because, you know, I’ve always been a person that when it came to an inquiry form, I would ask like, how did you find me?

And I put in dropdowns for stuff, um, you know, for photography on like, was it Google? Was it a referral? Was it another photographer? Blah, blah, blah. Because I always wanted to know that. And I feel like when you get like sales and stuff, a lot of. For these cart systems. Like they don’t have that. Like they don’t, and I’m like, well, why aren’t we asking that?

Like, you could make it a dropdown or ask him to fill in the blank. And you know, and it’s funny though, ’cause my husband, he’s like, oh, I never fill that out. I was like, you’re not my ideal client, man.

Alison: Well, I haven’t run an online ad in at least a year for my photography, and I’ve had several

Melissa Arlena: Uh,

Alison: in the last handful of months use that dropdown and select online ad.[00:21:00]

Melissa Arlena: yeah. Yeah. So it’s

Alison: it’s good to know something, but

Melissa Arlena: right. Yeah.

Alison: has not been an online ad.

Melissa Arlena: Oh, okay. So you might get somebody who’s like, well, or they may think it’s an ad or something, but it maybe it was just a post.

Alison: think of is like maybe

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: high at the, this is pompous, but I’m so high on the Google rankings, they thought I was sponsored, or

Melissa Arlena: Make me

Alison: about, I don’t know.

I haven’t,

Melissa Arlena: uhhuh.

Alison: in my

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Who knows?

Alison: that shouldn’t be the case.

Melissa Arlena: Um, I think too, like I actually had message, I was talking to my business coach, so I have my funnel coach right now, but then I have just an overall business coach. Um, and my business coach, I had reached out to her ’cause I was like, Hey, I’m like, you know, I’m trying to think of like these numbers and revenue and stuff and, and goals and it’s, you know, it’s me.

And then I have two girls who kind of work like part-time contractors for me. I’m like, so it’s just us. Um, I was like, and. This year, obviously we all know this year’s been hard for everybody. Like, um, you know, my numbers are up, but they’re not up where I wanted them to be and stuff. [00:22:00] And so I’ve had to kind of sit here and reset, and they’re not, they’re not up where I wanted them to be because I’m, I was kind of thinking about it.

I’m like, do I have an unrealistic goal set? And I think that can be something for all of us to think about of like the goals we’re setting. Are they, is there a reason behind them? Are they a realistic goal? So I’ve always thought, because I heard this from someone else and she’d heard it from some business gurus that like 15% increase in revenue.

Alison: yeah,

Melissa Arlena: gets hard after a while, guys like,

Alison: You

Melissa Arlena: you know.

Alison: like that’s a, that could be a lot.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. That start, that can start feeling like a lot. And then it’s like, well, if I don’t hit it, am I failing? Is my business failing? And so I messaged my business coach that I was like, Hey, like this is the stuff I’m, I’m struggling with right now. And she, um, she came back and she was like, yeah.

She was like, no, 15%. In the beginning can is great. She was like, but at some point, you’re right. You have to, you know, be, you have to look at something. And I think she told me, um, somewhere around 10%, she would love to see that, like five to 10%. And I was like, okay, I’m in that range and stuff. And she said she’s actually been at a [00:23:00] couple conferences where people on the stage talked about that same thing.

They said, stop focusing on your revenue and how much you’re making and start focusing on your. Profit. Um, and so start looking at that And, um, I actually was just listening to an Amy Porterfield podcast with Jamie Troll, who’s, um, an accountant and stuff. And she was talking about that too, of like, you know, don’t focus on like, oh, I’m hitting this big number goal.

She was like, and without focusing on your profit and making sure that’s in line. So I think that, I think that works for photographers too, of like, you know. Keep an eye on your expenses and stuff and pay attention, you know, and make sure your pricing is aligned so that if your cost of goods are are x, that your profit is y you know, like all of that needs to be in that area.

So, so I think it’s readjusting my mindset a little bit. And because I just was, I told her, I was like, I can’t keep growing at 15%. I was like, I, that will kill me. Like, and she, and she, uh, I think the next time we sit down, we’re actually gonna look at. What does scaling look like? I mean, I know for you, [00:24:00] scaling would look like having the associate shooter and stuff because you can’t be shooting all of these.

So,

Alison: it’s the studio

Melissa Arlena: and

Alison: for sure.

Melissa Arlena: yeah, and so for me it’s that same type of thing. It’s, it’s bringing in other, other people to help and stuff. And like, and, but then you have to look at what does that cost, you know, and

Alison: Can

Melissa Arlena: there’s a lot of stuff with it.

Alison: ledge to, to

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: of.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. So I think we’re gonna focus on that. And then, um. And then really I, um, I think I wanna niche down my family sessions, um, on the photography side to just like extended families or my membership clients I don’t love and I have never loved just booking a random one-off family session in the fall.

Um, but I don’t mind it when it’s a client that I’ve shot before, like, and then we have a relationship because I just hate that kind of like churn and burn. Like they just move on to somebody else. And who knows? Some of these people who are new, they could come back. I realize that, but. I just, I’m like, I want, I wanna do sessions for people I’ve already done, or I’m cool with an extended family session [00:25:00] because at this point my extended family session charge is almost what I charged for weddings when I first got started.

And I was telling my best friend that I was like, remember we used to be at the wedding shows and like I was $2,500 for a wedding day or something. And I was like, and now I’m trying to charge like $2,000 plus for an extended family and I am charging it like I do. I do get bookings on that, but I’m like,

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: I would rather do a $2,000 extended family session than.

Than just a normal, than just a four person session at this point. Like, if I’m gonna take the time away from my family in the evenings, which is a pain in the butt when you’ve got kids who are like school age and they’ve got activities, and I had to coordinate, you know, with my husband on when he and the boys are coming home and then put my daughter in aftercare because then I gotta go out to this other location, blah.

You know, it just,

Alison: Yeah,

Melissa Arlena: was like, no, this is. This is not working out well, and I need to make sure that I’m getting paid handsomely for it. And I just, so I think, I think I might actually just switch my family page to just being extended family and just being like, if, if you’re a past client and you want a family session, great, but if you’re [00:26:00] an ex, you know, otherwise I just want like ex extended families.

Alison: I’ve got extended families, uh, spending upwards of like four, $4,000 plus. They’re

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: they’re, it’s not consistent, but

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: than off. It’s more than one time a year.

Melissa Arlena: I like extended family sessions. I think it’s from being a wedding photographer and doing family formals that like I could crank those suckers out. I love, I mean, many sessions don’t bother me in the, in the sense of like, okay, well we have a short timeframe. I’m like, okay, great. ’cause I have a lot of tricks.

Let’s pull ’em all out. Let’s do it all and then you’re out in 15 minutes. Like, and so an extended family session just feels like five mini sessions to me. You know it and yeah. And so I’m like, let’s do this.

Alison: they’ve got a higher val intrinsic value because there’s so much

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: at one time.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Yeah. So I, I love ’em. Um, and then I guess I’ll turn on my pick time print sale. That’s something that I hadn’t thought about. I’m like, oh, yeah, I need to do that.

Alison: Yes.

Melissa Arlena: that’s the nice thing of like, yep, let’s just turn you back on. I don’t think, uh, I don’t think there’s anything that, I don’t even think there’s any galleries that I’d be like, oh, let’s not do that one.

You know, sometimes we all have those where we’re like, [00:27:00] I don’t wanna talk to those clients again. No. But I don’t have anything like that, so,

Alison: myself, but

Melissa Arlena: yeah.

Alison: cool. Well, that is our queue for update. If you have any questions, reach out to us. Um, I, Alison, Alison Bell photo or keep it moving on Instagram.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah, if you guys wanna reach me, you gotta land in my inbox ’cause I’m not on Instagram, but you go out to picture perfect rankings.com and uh, you can fill out a contact form there or send us an email if you’ve got any questions and stuff.

Alison: and like we, we will have all those links in the show nights. Um, pick time, Jessica Tutton, and, uh, wedding

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: you guys. So

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: next time.

Melissa Arlena: Bye-bye.

Alison: Wow.