EP 35: Quarter 4 Check-In

00:00:46 [Melissa]
So my big thing was to let my subcontractors take over some more of the work and me back off.
00:00:52 [Melissa]
I have let my marketing girl I’m like, just go.

00:00:55 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:55 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:58 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:00:58 [Melissa]
I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:01:03 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine business relocations.

00:01:09 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges, and now we want to share our experience with you.
00:01:13 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.

00:01:19 [Melissa]
Today, we are gonna get personal again talking about our quarterly goals.
00:01:23 [Melissa]
Our just gonna be a q four check-in.
00:01:24 [Melissa]
So we’re gonna talk about how q three went and what we’re working on for q four and beyond.
00:01:28 [Melissa]
But before we dive in, it’s tool time.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
Shout out to all the children in the nineties and all you JTT fans.

00:01:37 [Melissa]
This is our segment that we’re gonna highlight one of the favorite tools we use in our businesses.
00:01:41 [Melissa]
And this week, we are gonna talk about Pic Time.
00:01:44 [Melissa]
You got

00:01:44 [Alison]
me hooked on Pic Time quite some time ago, and I was so glad I switched.
00:01:48 [Alison]
So one of my favorite things about Pic Time from the very beginning was the Lightroom plugin.
00:01:55 [Alison]
The light in lets you upload galleries without having to create high res JPEGs on your hard drive.
00:02:03 [Alison]
So, like, you create a gallery right there in Lightroom, you drag what you want everything it to look like, the cover to that, and then you hit publish.
00:02:09 [Alison]
And then this magic happens in the background, and it automatically gets to Pic Time as a, JPEG, and it saves so much hard drive space.

00:02:19 [Alison]
You guys, like, I can’t even it’s so awesome.
00:02:22 [Alison]
That was the first thing I loved about it.

00:02:24 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:02:24 [Melissa]
And it’s funny.
00:02:25 [Melissa]
Alice and I were talking about before I have tried out probably at least five other gallery software systems.
00:02:30 [Melissa]
And this is gonna show you how old I am all the way back to Photocard where we used to actually host the gallery on your website and have like, I had a whole gallery shop system that was hosted on my website and have to upload those photos.
00:02:44 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:02:45 [Melissa]
And it was funny.
00:02:46 [Melissa]
I went and looked it up, and I was like, oh my gosh.
00:02:48 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:02:48 [Melissa]
It came out, like, 2003, and it was, like, the thing for about ten years.
00:02:51 [Melissa]
And then all these other gallery software stuff came about.

00:02:54 [Melissa]
And so I tried out different ones.
00:02:55 [Melissa]
For me, I found Pic Time when I found Anami’s simple sales system.
00:03:00 [Melissa]
So So I found her through it, and that was where I got started.
00:03:02 [Melissa]
There are sometimes with a gallery that I don’t even export it to a JPEG on my computer because Yeah.
00:03:08 [Melissa]
It just got a pic so when I’ve been, like, busy and stuff, I’m like, oh, I just haven’t gotten I’m not gonna use these photos for anything right now.

00:03:15 [Melissa]
Or let’s say it’s a client that has yeah.
00:03:17 [Melissa]
We don’t want you sharing those photos, then there’s no reason for me to export them onto my computer at that point because otherwise, I may forget and then use a photo that somebody’s no.
00:03:26 [Melissa]
We do not want that published and everything.
00:03:28 [Melissa]
So I’m with you on the space and stuff.
00:03:30 [Melissa]
And then the slide shows and stuff are amazing.

00:03:33 [Alison]
They’ve got audio built in.
00:03:36 [Alison]
They’re so creative.
00:03:37 [Alison]
They’re so pretty.
00:03:38 [Alison]
The whole thing about Pic Time is just pretty.
00:03:40 [Alison]
It’s pretty.

00:03:41 [Melissa]
And I remember, I’m not good with, like, reels and videos and stuff for Instagram.
00:03:45 [Melissa]
And so I have used their slideshow as, like, my hack for creating a video or an Instagram reel of a 100%.

00:03:52 [Alison]
Anytime I share a reel of a photo session, it’s all the same family.
00:03:56 [Alison]
It’s from Pic Time.
00:03:57 [Alison]
So y’all just go to alison doll photog on Instagram, deep dive my reels.
00:04:00 [Alison]
And if it’s a bunch of people, that came from Pic Time.

00:04:03 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:04 [Melissa]
Because you can just go in and say, well, I wanna make it I’m just gonna be fifteen seconds.
00:04:07 [Melissa]
Let me grab 15 photos.
00:04:08 [Melissa]
You can put text on it.
00:04:09 [Melissa]
You can put

00:04:10 [Alison]
your logo on it.
00:04:11 [Alison]
You can put I’ve done location specific.
00:04:12 [Alison]
You can change the speed of how fast they go through it.
00:04:15 [Alison]
And then you just use an Instagram trending audio and you’re good to go.

00:04:18 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:19 [Melissa]
And so like we were saying before too, simple sales, the automation, using it for many sessions and for my collections, it just makes it super easy.
00:04:25 [Melissa]
I have it all set up.
00:04:26 [Melissa]
And then they have a ton of, like, automations for sales that I don’t use enough.
00:04:32 [Melissa]
Many.

00:04:32 [Melissa]
Do not Yeah.

00:04:33 [Alison]
So many.
00:04:34 [Alison]
So there some of the standard ones that you can use year round are early bird discounts.
00:04:38 [Alison]
Like, it’s automated discounts where they you go in and set up what you want discounts to be, the code to be, what the percentage to be.
00:04:43 [Alison]
And anytime you create a gallery and assign the early bird automation to it, that gallery gets all the information on how to get a discount for the first two weeks the gallery is open.
00:04:53 [Alison]
And same thing for the expiration and on holiday discount.

00:04:56 [Alison]
If you just opt in to all the holiday ones and they go through and make it for you.
00:05:00 [Alison]
And they increase their sales, you increase your sales.
00:05:02 [Alison]
It’s, it’s so beautiful and powerful.
00:05:05 [Alison]
It’s so good.
00:05:06 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:05:06 [Alison]
And then you can also create custom packages.
00:05:08 [Alison]
I did this when I did photos for a dance studio.
00:05:11 [Alison]
So it was more volume work.
00:05:13 [Alison]
I had hundreds of dancers, thousands of them, and I was able to create custom packages that were more akin to sports photography where you want a, b, or c.
00:05:20 [Alison]
And I was able to create that in there and then send them out, and they order what they wanted.

00:05:25 [Alison]
They got what they wanted, and Pic Time did all the fulfillment.
00:05:27 [Alison]
It was fantastic.

00:05:28 [Melissa]
So you’re not limited to, oh, I can only offer one package for everybody.
00:05:32 [Melissa]
You can have different packages for different types of sessions.
00:05:35 [Melissa]
You can do all of that.
00:05:36 [Melissa]
And it’s super pretty.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
Let’s be honest.

00:05:38 [Alison]
It’s pretty, and that matters when you’re displaying photos, people.

00:05:42 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:05:42 [Alison]
Alright.
00:05:42 [Alison]
So if you are interested in Pic Time, you’ve never used it before, we do have a link in it so that you can get what is it a free trial, something like that?

00:05:49 [Melissa]
Don’t quote us on whatever the offer is right now.
00:05:51 [Melissa]
It’s You do.
00:05:52 [Melissa]
50% off or, like, a one month trial.
00:05:54 [Melissa]
I’m not sure.
00:05:54 [Melissa]
It’s sometimes they change, but there’s something.

00:05:57 [Melissa]
There’s some kind of little special promo type thing versus if you just go out to their website, I think, and sign up.

00:06:02 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:06:02 [Alison]
I could be lying.
00:06:02 [Alison]
So y’all go check that out.
00:06:04 [Alison]
So it’s especially good for those mini sessions when you want to sell a certain number and then have people upgrade and just be able to upcharge.
00:06:11 [Alison]
Yes.

00:06:11 [Alison]
That’s probably the most powerful option that they have.
00:06:15 [Alison]
Alright.
00:06:15 [Alison]
Okay.
00:06:15 [Alison]
So for q three alright, Melissa.
00:06:17 [Alison]
What were your goal this past quarter?

00:06:20 [Alison]
Hey.
00:06:21 [Alison]
Yes.
00:06:21 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:06:22 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?
00:06:24 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.

00:06:27 [Alison]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.
00:06:30 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start.
00:06:34 [Alison]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:06:37 [Alison]
So head over to alisonbell.co.
00:06:39 [Alison]
That’s alisonwith1l,bell.co to get your pre move checklist.

00:06:45 [Alison]
You got this.

00:06:46 [Melissa]
So my big thing was to let my subcontractors do more of the work and me back off.
00:06:52 [Melissa]
And I have let my marketing girl I’m like, just go.
00:06:54 [Melissa]
It’s so funny.
00:06:55 [Melissa]
I’ll just suddenly get, like, messages on my phone or, like, Instagram stuff where it’s like, oh, you got a new follower.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
You got a new somebody left a comment.

00:07:01 [Melissa]
And I’m like, well, I didn’t do that.
00:07:02 [Melissa]
We were at the Annapolis sailboat show recently, my husband and I were, and I ran into someone that she used to be a wedding planner.
00:07:08 [Melissa]
We did a wedding together, and now she sells boats.
00:07:10 [Melissa]
The first thing she said to me was like, oh my gosh.
00:07:12 [Melissa]
How’s your SEO business going?

00:07:14 [Melissa]
I see you posting all the time.
00:07:15 [Melissa]
And I was like, it’s great.
00:07:16 [Melissa]
And I’m thinking, I haven’t posted anything about that.
00:07:20 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:20 [Melissa]
So it’s, she in fact, I am a serial buyer of trainings and templates y’all.

00:07:27 [Melissa]
Like, I totally get sold to.
00:07:28 [Melissa]
So I have bought some trainings on, like, Instagram stuff.
00:07:32 [Melissa]
I sent her, my contractor, the, like, login links, and she’s setting up all the ManyChat automations and, like, grabbing them from these programs and taking care of all of it.
00:07:41 [Melissa]
And I’m just like, this is amazing.
00:07:44 [Melissa]
It’s phenomenal.

00:07:45 [Melissa]
That’s awesome.
00:07:46 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:07:46 [Alison]
What about those family sessions?

00:07:47 [Melissa]
So I will say, like, I feel like right now things are pretty slow.
00:07:51 [Melissa]
Like, I’ve there’s a lot of drivers that are not that.
00:07:53 [Melissa]
I’m not doing family sessions, but I have actually considered, well, maybe I do wanna do a couple just to bring in a little bit more cash this fall and stuff.
00:08:00 [Melissa]
But I’ve had some more newborn sessions and stuff like that, so that’s been good.
00:08:03 [Melissa]
But I have wavered on that of, well, maybe this isn’t the year to cut out that income stream.

00:08:08 [Melissa]
So I’m still going back and forth on it.
00:08:10 [Melissa]
But for right now, I’m gonna hold to it and just see, and we’ll go from there.

00:08:15 [Alison]
Just see.
00:08:16 [Alison]
Just see.

00:08:16 [Melissa]
What about you?
00:08:16 [Melissa]
You had a bunch of stuff that

00:08:18 [Alison]
you I did.
00:08:19 [Alison]
I did.
00:08:19 [Alison]
So I summer came out of nowhere and slapped me in the face.
00:08:22 [Alison]
So I have I’ve for that, I feel like I spent all of September and August editing, doing gallery reveals, chasing down client decisions because we were all, like, putting everything on the back burner for getting school started.
00:08:34 [Alison]
Like, I was floundering myself and then clients were leaving Hawaii and going back to get school started and hockey started and all these things.

00:08:40 [Alison]
And so it really drew the process out of making some decisions and getting client orders nailed down and completed.
00:08:46 [Alison]
So it took way longer than I would have expected or wanted, but we did it.
00:08:49 [Alison]
It took a while.
00:08:50 [Alison]
And I was I was planning on keeping one week out of every month free of sessions just for my sanity.
00:08:57 [Alison]
And turns out, when people travel to Hawaii, they just stop in September.

00:09:04 [Alison]
They hit a complete Rafa cliff.
00:09:06 [Alison]
There was nothing.
00:09:08 [Alison]
I got my one week Yep.
00:09:10 [Alison]
Plus two more.
00:09:12 [Alison]
So I ended up having which honestly, it turned out to be really good because I needed that time to not be shooting to get all of these images edited, get the clients ordered, like, chase them down, come back, do more edits, and I really needed that breathing room.

00:09:26 [Alison]
So putting a little note in my calendar for next year, plan to do nothing in September.
00:09:30 [Alison]
Plan to shoot nothing.
00:09:31 [Alison]
Right?
00:09:31 [Alison]
I think I have two sessions the whole month, to be honest.

00:09:34 [Melissa]
And it’s honestly, it’s so hard.
00:09:35 [Melissa]
And this is something we’ll talk about with, like, upcoming everything.
00:09:38 [Melissa]
But when you are in your busy season, it’s so hard to find the time to do the things to work on your business to keep it moving forward.
00:09:44 [Melissa]
And even like you, I know you were chasing down clients from the summer, getting those gallery reveals done and getting that income in.
00:09:50 [Melissa]
And so if you’re so busy shooting new stuff, you keep pushing that off.

00:09:54 [Melissa]
Next thing could be six months later.
00:09:55 [Melissa]
I still have two

00:09:56 [Alison]
clients from the summer that have not

00:09:58 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:09:58 [Alison]
Placed their orders.
00:09:59 [Alison]
They’ve seen their reveals, but they’ve not placed orders.
00:10:01 [Alison]
So it’s okay.

00:10:02 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:02 [Melissa]
It’s just money sitting out there that you’re like, I would really like to get paid for the work that I did.
00:10:06 [Melissa]
And if you’re busy, you’re just not thinking about that.

00:10:08 [Alison]
Exactly.
00:10:08 [Alison]
And so that’s have a little bit of that lingering.
00:10:10 [Alison]
And then when it came for blogging for the coaching side, I’ve successfully done two big blogs.
00:10:16 [Alison]
They’re here.
00:10:17 [Alison]
Three shirts.

00:10:18 [Alison]
They’re optimized.
00:10:19 [Alison]
I did do a workcation.

00:10:20 [Melissa]
If you’re

00:10:20 [Alison]
Oh, yeah.
00:10:21 [Alison]
Follow me on Instagram.
00:10:22 [Alison]
I did a whole reel about it, about what I did, where I went, how I did it.
00:10:25 [Alison]
It wasn’t a 100% work, but it was about 85, 90% probably.
00:10:28 [Alison]
I got some really big projects done that I now want to completely redo.

00:10:32 [Alison]
I just need to revamp and just reconsider the whole target demographic and what I’m really doing there.
00:10:37 [Alison]
And and just honestly, I’ve been having when it comes to the coaching sites and the keeping it moving, like, how much do I wanna work?
00:10:43 [Alison]
Yes.
00:10:43 [Alison]
I wanna do it.
00:10:44 [Alison]
Yes.

00:10:44 [Alison]
I wanna share.
00:10:45 [Alison]
Yes.
00:10:45 [Alison]
This is a real need that I found what was missing when I’m moving my business, but it’s also I’m not here to hustle twenty four hours either.
00:10:52 [Alison]
So having a lot of, like, where are my boundaries?
00:10:55 [Alison]
How much am I willing to do at the same time as as shooting?

00:10:58 [Alison]
And just keeping things in perspective, really.

00:11:01 [Melissa]
So Figuring out that balance.

00:11:02 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:03 [Alison]
Figuring out the balance.
00:11:03 [Alison]
Keeping the balance.
00:11:04 [Alison]
Right?
00:11:04 [Alison]
So that was q three.

00:11:06 [Alison]
Now that we’re as the time of recording, it is October.
00:11:09 [Alison]
It is q four.
00:11:10 [Alison]
So what, Melissa, do you have?

00:11:13 [Melissa]
Hey there, photographers.
00:11:14 [Melissa]
Struggling with what to blog about?
00:11:15 [Melissa]
Tired of staring at that blinky cursor, waiting for inspiration to strike?
00:11:19 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:19 [Melissa]
We’ve all been there.

00:11:20 [Melissa]
That is why I created the blogging club.
00:11:23 [Melissa]
Imagine this.
00:11:24 [Melissa]
Every month, you know exactly what to blog.
00:11:26 [Melissa]
No more guessing games or frantic Googling.
00:11:29 [Melissa]
Each month, I’ll walk you through SEO friendly blog post outlines with examples, teach you the latest SEO and marketing tips in a master class, and support you live in a monthly q and a to answer all your blogging questions.

00:11:41 [Melissa]
Plus, we’ve got a community to cheer you on after.
00:11:44 [Melissa]
Let’s take the guesswork out of blogging and start driving those dream clients to your site.
00:11:48 [Melissa]
Head to the bloggingclub.com and use code t b c trial to get 50% off your first month and join us today.
00:11:57 [Melissa]
So, yeah, key four.
00:11:58 [Melissa]
It’s funny.

00:11:59 [Melissa]
I, I sent a message to my business coach just earlier this week.
00:12:02 [Melissa]
It was like a ten minute long boxer, and then I’m like and all of these ideas.
00:12:06 [Melissa]
I was just like, I wanna do this and this and this and this.
00:12:08 [Melissa]
And then I was like, I should probably write this down to hold myself accountable and so that if she has a clue what’s going on and she can hold me accountable too.
00:12:15 [Melissa]
So q four, Black Friday sale.

00:12:16 [Melissa]
We always run a Black Friday sale in our shop, So just getting all of that stuff prepped.
00:12:21 [Melissa]
One of the things I’m looking at doing also is bringing back a little bit of, like, my one on one mentoring, but pivoting it.
00:12:29 [Melissa]
Because when I first started off doing SEO and one on one mentoring, I just felt like I was fire hosing people with information, which is why I turned it into a group coaching program with videos that people could go back to.
00:12:40 [Melissa]
But I see a need for people who they don’t necessarily need the group coaching because they’ve got some things set up, but they’re doing some things in their business.
00:12:48 [Melissa]
And they really need someone’s eyes on it and giving them that next level.

00:12:52 [Melissa]
So I’m working out kind of an idea on some one hour SEO strategy sessions where people can book with me directly.
00:12:58 [Melissa]
We’ll have a one hour call, and I’ll give them an overview of what I see and what they need to be working on.
00:13:03 [Melissa]
It’s not gonna be a deep dive where I’m telling you this is where you go to set your meta description.
00:13:07 [Melissa]
That’s more of, like, group coaching.
00:13:09 [Melissa]
But more of, hey.

00:13:10 [Melissa]
I think maybe updating your meta description on this page.
00:13:12 [Melissa]
Let’s talk about planning out some blog posts.
00:13:14 [Melissa]
Let’s look at creating some pages here.
00:13:16 [Melissa]
Like, just giving them that overall outlogy, and then they can move forward with that.
00:13:20 [Melissa]
So working out the details of that offer, and my plan is that should be out about the time that this episode comes out, I think, too.

00:13:26 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:27 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:13:27 [Melissa]
That’s awesome.
00:13:28 [Melissa]
Going on.
00:13:28 [Melissa]
Logging club, just we’re just continuing to keep sharing the blogging club and getting new members into that.
00:13:34 [Melissa]
We had a q and a today for it, and and I was so excited to hear the girls talking about the blog post that they got out.
00:13:39 [Melissa]
And then one of my girls, she was saying how she loves those posts because then it makes she uses the whole one week of marketing from that post.

00:13:46 [Melissa]
And so the rest of her marketing is done, and she’s, what do I do on the other two weeks?
00:13:49 [Melissa]
And it’s like, because you only give us two blog posts a month.
00:13:52 [Melissa]
And it’s one of those, I don’t wanna overwhelm you.
00:13:54 [Melissa]
So we were talking about that.
00:13:55 [Melissa]
What could she do those other weeks?

00:13:56 [Melissa]
Evergreen content.
00:13:57 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:13:58 [Alison]
And just title it.

00:13:59 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:59 [Melissa]
Getting that out there.
00:14:01 [Melissa]
I also wanna set up, like, affiliate more affiliate stuff for people being affiliates for me.
00:14:06 [Melissa]
So, like, I’m affiliates for people, and it’s really nice to get pajama profits and just have you’re like, hey.
00:14:11 [Melissa]
I gave my opinion on something.

00:14:13 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:13 [Melissa]
And then suddenly, ding, you’ve got an affiliate payment.
00:14:16 [Melissa]
And so I have a lot of past clients that I’ve worked with that I see them referring me and talking about me.
00:14:21 [Melissa]
So I wanna reward them with, hey, here’s a code.
00:14:24 [Melissa]
Make some money from it too.

00:14:27 [Melissa]
So just trying to get all of that kind of thing set up and get it out there, which luckily I use Thrive.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
I talk about that sometime on on tool time, and ThriveCart does make it easy.
00:14:35 [Melissa]
It’s just getting all my ducks in order.
00:14:37 [Melissa]
And then going into December, just keeping things light.
00:14:40 [Melissa]
My kids are out for three weeks.

00:14:42 [Melissa]
It is a long time.
00:14:43 [Melissa]
Wow.
00:14:44 [Melissa]
They’re out for school for two weeks, but then we’re having to pull them a week early because my husband’s graduating with his master’s degree from Clemson.
00:14:51 [Melissa]
And so we’re traveling down to Clemson so that way he can walk across the stage

00:14:55 [Alison]
and get

00:14:56 [Melissa]
it.
00:14:56 [Melissa]
And so we’re turning it into a family vacation, and we have to be there early for the military ceremony side of it, the actual graduation.
00:15:04 [Melissa]
And I don’t want especially that week, I don’t wanna be having to worry about working and stuff when my in laws are around and my kids are around and we’re doing, like, a Christmas Thanksgiving.
00:15:15 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:15:15 [Melissa]
I’ve always tried to keep December light, especially anytime the kids are out.

00:15:19 [Melissa]
Like, me and my girls who work for me, I’m like, look.
00:15:21 [Melissa]
If your children are out of school, I do not expect work from you that day.
00:15:24 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:15:25 [Alison]
For sure.

00:15:26 [Melissa]
And then last thing is really just, like I was saying before, figuring out what is my marketing plan for q one.
00:15:31 [Melissa]
And I wanna think about that now because Mhmm.
00:15:33 [Melissa]
Like we were just talking about.
00:15:35 [Melissa]
Busy and you’re doing the work of your business, it’s really hard to find time to do the work on your business.
00:15:42 [Melissa]
January, February, March is huge for everybody wanting to work on their SEO, so I get super busy then.

00:15:48 [Melissa]
And I don’t wanna wake up in April going, oh, I don’t have any more clients because I didn’t market for the last three.

00:15:55 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:15:55 [Alison]
Your market yeah.
00:15:56 [Alison]
So like Dana said before, like, the feast, famine cycle, your marketing is not for today.
00:16:01 [Alison]
It’s for three months from now.

00:16:03 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:16:03 [Melissa]
Next quarter.
00:16:04 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:05 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:05 [Melissa]
So that’s where I’m trying to like I said, I’d message my business coach.

00:16:08 [Melissa]
We’re setting up a meeting in the next couple weeks where we can talk about all of that stuff and going ahead and figuring out a plan.
00:16:14 [Melissa]
So that way, I know exactly what I need to be doing and going from there.
00:16:17 [Melissa]
So yeah.
00:16:17 [Melissa]
I don’t know.
00:16:18 [Melissa]
It’s like the end of the year.

00:16:19 [Melissa]
I’m like, I got all this stuff that I wanna get accomplished and stuff.
00:16:22 [Melissa]
So what are you thinking about for your q four?

00:16:24 [Alison]
Very similar to our reverse engineering your timeline if you’re pivoting or moving or relaunching.
00:16:29 [Alison]
I sat down and did a reverse engineer for the rest of the year for the holidays.
00:16:33 [Alison]
Because opposite of you, the holidays are really busy for me.
00:16:36 [Alison]
So there’s already a queries.
00:16:38 [Alison]
I’ve had probably four or five inquiries last month for the week around Thanksgiving.

00:16:43 [Alison]
Yep.
00:16:43 [Alison]
And then the week after Christmas and the week before Christmas, which obviously are times I don’t love to work, but also the times leading up the weeks leading up to each of those holidays are fairly slow.
00:16:54 [Alison]
So there’s almost little to nothing in the December, almost little to nothing in the November.
00:16:59 [Alison]
But then that one week to ten days is falls to the wall for a lot of

00:17:03 [Melissa]
better terms.
00:17:04 [Melissa]
Are you planning to take more sessions during those times to offset the other weeks?
00:17:08 [Melissa]
Like, work really hard?

00:17:09 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:17:09 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:17:09 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:17:09 [Alison]
I’m that’s what I’m considering.
00:17:10 [Alison]
Like, with consistency club, Anami got me thinking, like, oh, deadlines, rush fees, da da da da.

00:17:16 [Alison]
So I think I am.
00:17:17 [Alison]
I hate working on weekends for a lot of reasons.
00:17:19 [Alison]
Mostly, they’re very crowded.
00:17:21 [Alison]
But if that’s all somebody can do and I’m booked up for the rest of the week, like, I’m not opposed to doing one or two Saturdays when it’s really busy to squeeze in another session reasonably.
00:17:31 [Alison]
I’m not gonna sacrifice client experience or anything, but they’re gonna have to pay for it.

00:17:35 [Alison]
I’m doing weekends surcharges for those busy weeks.
00:17:38 [Alison]
Those are the only weeks I’m willing to work on the weekends.
00:17:40 [Alison]
Also, just there’s people who aren’t coming here until Thanksgiving or right after Thanksgiving, but they want their photos still for cards.
00:17:47 [Alison]
So I guarantee a two to three week timeline, but there’s gonna be a rush fee if you want it within one week.
00:17:51 [Alison]
And I’m only gonna do it

00:17:52 [Melissa]
with one week.
00:17:53 [Melissa]
Upsell though too of even especially guys with and we’ll have to talk about this at some time like Imagine and the AI tools and stuff.
00:17:59 [Melissa]
But I remember seeing that when, people were first starting to use Imagine and somebody was like, yeah.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
I now will give my clients the option of, hey.
00:18:08 [Melissa]
I can turn your session around in forty eight hours, but it’s gonna be x charge

00:18:12 [Alison]
for me.
00:18:12 [Alison]
Real life people who don’t turn it around that fast.
00:18:15 [Alison]
And so I can’t do it any faster, but I find them a lot more reliable than some of the AI stuff.
00:18:19 [Alison]
But yeah.
00:18:20 [Alison]
So rush charges for getting things out sooner, especially if they’re in Hawaii because things shipping out here just take longer.

00:18:26 [Alison]
But then also holiday sales.
00:18:27 [Alison]
So I’ve been thinking about, like, maybe doing some customized holiday sales, getting those going, or maybe even because I don’t sell all digitals.
00:18:35 [Alison]
Right?
00:18:36 [Alison]
My clients only get the digital files for what they choose to print.
00:18:40 [Alison]
And so possibly, I don’t know how it would work it out, but possibly doing holiday sale for the rest of their digital file.

00:18:47 [Alison]
Gotta keep in mind the branding and the value.
00:18:49 [Alison]
I want it to be enticing, but also not devaluing the brand.
00:18:52 [Alison]
And I’m not sure I’m not sure how to execute that.
00:18:55 [Alison]
So we’ll see.
00:18:56 [Alison]
We’ll see.

00:18:56 [Alison]
I’m open to those ideas.
00:18:57 [Alison]
And then marketing plans.
00:18:59 [Alison]
Just I’m doing really good about doing a month at a time.
00:19:02 [Alison]
I’m getting Instagram posts scheduled out a month at a time like I just yesterday did three weeks at one Wow.
00:19:08 [Alison]
Which was awkward.

00:19:09 [Alison]
Yep.
00:19:09 [Alison]
Still blogging, trying to blog once a month or so, and then repurposing that the same way we tell you guys to do that.
00:19:15 [Alison]
So to work less on the off seasons, but, like, work probably a lot more sessions the the holiday weeks.

00:19:21 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:22 [Melissa]
And I think that’s the thing.
00:19:23 [Melissa]
Like, there’s gonna be times where maybe you are busy from dusk till dawn or dawn till dusk, whatever, from three weeks.
00:19:29 [Melissa]
And then the next three weeks, it might be easy, and you’re only working two or three days.
00:19:32 [Melissa]
There’s a balance on all of that kind of stuff.

00:19:34 [Melissa]
And I’m definitely am still trying to make sure I always joke around that I left the IT world to go work for the worst boss ever, AKA me.
00:19:43 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:19:43 [Melissa]
Yep.

00:19:44 [Alison]
Did you keep

00:19:45 [Melissa]
it away from it?
00:19:46 [Melissa]
I know.
00:19:46 [Melissa]
I’m like, no.
00:19:47 [Melissa]
I have the day off, Melissa.
00:19:48 [Melissa]
So I’ll go to Target and wander around.

00:19:49 [Melissa]
And there are times I have to tell myself.
00:19:51 [Melissa]
I had a session this week, and I was like, you know what?
00:19:52 [Melissa]
I wanna go to Hobby Lobby because I’m in Richmond, and that’s where the Hobby Lobby is.
00:19:56 [Melissa]
And I wanna walk around there in Target.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
And I had to tell my boss in the back of my head, shush.

00:20:00 [Melissa]
No.
00:20:00 [Melissa]
I do not need to go back home and get on my computer immediately.
00:20:03 [Melissa]
I can go walk around and chill out.

00:20:05 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:20:05 [Alison]
Exactly.
00:20:06 [Alison]
And that’s the freedom and that’s the freedom I want to have and when I’m not in the state of constant hustle.
00:20:11 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:20:11 [Alison]
Just to just relax.

00:20:13 [Alison]
It’s totally fine.
00:20:14 [Alison]
It’s totally fine.
00:20:14 [Alison]
So awesome.
00:20:15 [Alison]
So that’s our conversation q three and q four.
00:20:18 [Alison]
If you have any questions, of course, always reach out to us.

00:20:20 [Alison]
Our links to Instagram are in the show notes.
00:20:22 [Alison]
And, of course, go check out Pic Time, see what you think, give them a try.
00:20:26 [Alison]
So, yeah, until next time, guys.

00:20:28 [Melissa]
Bye bye.
00:20:29 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:20:31 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:20:33 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:20:35 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.

00:20:36 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, no spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:20:44 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at Allison Bell Photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:20:54 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.