EP 100: 100th Episode: What We Loved, What You Loved

00:00:00 [Melissa]
It’s like our birthday kind of thing.

00:00:01 [Alison]
Right.
00:00:01 [Alison]
It’s just a gift to us.
00:00:02 [Alison]
Right?
00:00:02 [Alison]
Our birthday gift.
00:00:03 [Alison]
That’d be so good.

00:00:04 [Melissa]
It’s a birthday gift.
00:00:05 [Melissa]
It’s our hundredth episode gift from you to us, and we gave you the gift of telling you what episodes we think you should go back and listen to.
00:00:13 [Melissa]
Welcome to Get Booked, a photography podcast.

00:00:16 [Alison]
I’m Allison, active duty Marine Corps spouse, family photographer, and business mentor.

00:00:20 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, lifestyle newborn photographer turned SEO expert for photographers.

00:00:24 [Alison]
Between us, we have twenty seven years in the industry, nine business relocations, and a lot of lessons learned the hard way through experience.

00:00:31 [Melissa]
We’re here to help you get visible, get clients, and build a business that actually books.

00:00:36 [Alison]
Let’s go.

00:00:41 [Melissa]
Hey, guys.
00:00:41 [Melissa]
It’s episode 100, which feels a little wild to say out loud.

00:00:47 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:00:47 [Alison]
100 episode.
00:00:49 [Alison]
This almost snuck up on us guys.
00:00:50 [Alison]
We thankfully Melissa caught this happening.
00:00:52 [Alison]
We were just chugging away, but yeah, we’ve made it to a 100 episodes.

00:00:56 [Alison]
We’ve been doing this every spring and fall for two and a half years now.

00:01:00 [Melissa]
Which is weird.

00:01:01 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:01:01 [Alison]
So weird.
00:01:02 [Alison]
So guys, we’re going to and this episode is gonna be a little different.
00:01:05 [Alison]
We’re gonna share with you our top five downloaded episodes.
00:01:08 [Alison]
And then Melissa and I each picked a few of our favorite episodes we personally liked and think you need to go back and listen to despite the download history on that.

00:01:16 [Alison]
And Give up love.

00:01:17 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:18 [Melissa]
Give up some love, guys.
00:01:19 [Melissa]
But before

00:01:19 [Alison]
we get to that, we wanna reflect y’all.
00:01:22 [Alison]
We’ve y’all know if you’ve been list since January, there’s been a a small change here.
00:01:27 [Alison]
Our OGs, our original folks, you’ve been listening.
00:01:30 [Alison]
You know, we were not gig booked from the beginning.
00:01:32 [Alison]
Right?

00:01:33 [Alison]
We we were called keep it moving.
00:01:35 [Alison]
We chose that name.
00:01:36 [Alison]
I chose that name.
00:01:37 [Alison]
I guess we kinda both did because of the original nature and intent.
00:01:42 [Alison]
Right?

00:01:42 [Alison]
Like, so this whole podcast is kind of my brainchild out of years of struggle and and frustration because way back in 2018, we knew we were in our year of living in Okinawa.
00:01:57 [Alison]
My photography had blown up.
00:01:59 [Alison]
I’d really come into my craft and but we knew a move was coming within the exact year, the 2019.
00:02:06 [Alison]
And y’all photographers in the military space are a dime a dozen.
00:02:10 [Alison]
We are everywhere and we’re always moving.

00:02:12 [Alison]
Okay?
00:02:13 [Alison]
And so I knew I was bracing myself.
00:02:15 [Alison]
I knew I was going to be ripping up this, these referrals, these booked out sessions.
00:02:19 [Alison]
I was taking it all, all these beautiful things that I had come to love and anticipate and know a stable, real business, and just rip it from the shred.
00:02:26 [Alison]
It’s out, gone, starting over somewhere new.

00:02:29 [Alison]
And we had a good idea because of, of the nature of our orders.
00:02:31 [Alison]
We had plenty of time to prepare.
00:02:33 [Alison]
We knew where we were going.
00:02:34 [Alison]
And I just felt like I was looking left and right everywhere.
00:02:36 [Alison]
And just nobody was talking about this.

00:02:39 [Alison]
Nobody in the military space, nobody in the photography space, nobody in like the, like the spouse page, like nothing, nobody was, I was like, this is not right.
00:02:48 [Alison]
There is a dichotomy here.
00:02:49 [Alison]
This is not going on.
00:02:50 [Alison]
And so I figured it out for myself, But once I got a few moves into it and realized, okay, I’ve got a system here.
00:02:57 [Alison]
I’m not doing this terribly poorly.

00:03:00 [Alison]
There are other people in my situation.
00:03:01 [Alison]
There are other people who are looking around looking for that support and that help and pulling their hair out.
00:03:06 [Alison]
And so that’s where the name keep it moving came from.
00:03:08 [Alison]
When you’re associated with the military or not, if you’re moving, relocating yourself and your family, you’re also relocating your business, and we want you to keep it moving.
00:03:17 [Alison]
We want you to keep your business moving while you were physically moving.

00:03:21 [Alison]
So that was the whole idea behind the name and really the whole reason why we started the podcast in general is because free help.
00:03:26 [Alison]
I’m a podcast junkie.
00:03:28 [Alison]
We can talk a lot faster than I can write a blog post and quite honestly, who’s reading blog posts for this kind of stuff?
00:03:33 [Alison]
This is the podcast thing.
00:03:34 [Alison]
Right?

00:03:34 [Alison]
YouTube and and podcast are where this kind of stuff’s at.
00:03:37 [Alison]
So so that’s the original intent of it.
00:03:39 [Alison]
But then we had a little break.

00:03:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:03:41 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:03:41 [Melissa]
So if you guys go back, we’ll have to look up what episode it was, but it was closer to the beginning of the year.
00:03:44 [Melissa]
I think it was the first episode this year where we did talk about why we’re rebranding why we rebranded and stuff and and the new vision, which is while we’re still we still love people and photographers who are moving.
00:03:54 [Melissa]
We realized every time we were recording an episode, we’re like, this isn’t necessarily just if you’re moving.

00:03:58 [Melissa]
This could be if you’re starting your business.
00:04:00 [Melissa]
This could just be if you’re stuck in your business.
00:04:02 [Melissa]
And so so that’s where we made that pivot.
00:04:05 [Melissa]
So as we go back through some of our favorites, we just didn’t want, if you’re not an OG, you to get confused and be like, why does this say keep it moving?

00:04:12 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:04:13 [Alison]
So it’s Same people, but Yeah.
00:04:15 [Alison]
So the episode numbers will or steady throughout.
00:04:18 [Alison]
And, you know, keep it moving in the last two years.
00:04:20 [Alison]
It’s it’s be it’s being used by physical therapists more than it was when we first started.

00:04:25 [Alison]
And, you know, being the SEO focused queen that she is, keep it moving isn’t searchable.
00:04:30 [Alison]
It’s not helping our our algorithm, our natural search, or any of that.
00:04:34 [Alison]
So that’s where getting booked a photography podcast is actually a lot more useful to our end goal.
00:04:41 [Alison]
So who’s ready to hear our top five loaded shows?

00:04:45 [Melissa]
And this is kinda fun for us too because we don’t necessarily know what’s gonna hit really well with you guys and Yeah.
00:04:51 [Melissa]
What might not be something that you click on and download, but and I was kinda surprised that our number one episode is actually episode 31, which I was like, wow.
00:04:59 [Melissa]
That is a while ago.
00:05:01 [Melissa]
Oh.
00:05:01 [Melissa]
And it’s on the eighty twenty rule.

00:05:05 [Alison]
For years, Melissa told me to start a Facebook group.
00:05:08 [Alison]
For years, I said no.
00:05:10 [Alison]
And then I thought about 2018 me.
00:05:12 [Alison]
Mid move rebuilding my business, moving from back to Virginia from scratch, just desperate for someone who had been through it.
00:05:19 [Alison]
Someone to ask them questions, get real answers and not feel so alone in the process.

00:05:23 [Alison]
Someone who wasn’t going to tell me to just start over like that was a totally normal thing to say.
00:05:28 [Alison]
I wasn’t the first person moving my business because photographers and the military are a dime a dozen.
00:05:33 [Alison]
That’s exactly what Get Booked Anywhere is.
00:05:35 [Alison]
It’s a free Facebook community for women business owners like you who are relocating, rebuilding, or refining, and it’s the place I wish had existed when I needed it most.
00:05:46 [Alison]
Inside, you’re gonna find women who have been exactly where you are.

00:05:48 [Alison]
You can ask questions without feeling stupid, get real feedback without the fluff from me, from others, share your wins with people who actually understand what a big deal it is instead of a deadpan face from your husband, or connect with a community that gets the unique chaos of building something that has to move with you.
00:06:04 [Alison]
No gatekeeping, no judgment, no lurking alone, wondering if anyone else is going through this because they are and we’re gonna find them.
00:06:11 [Alison]
The link to join is in the show notes.
00:06:13 [Alison]
So come, it’s free, it’s active, and your people are already waiting.
00:06:18 [Alison]
No, that’s just I mean,

00:06:19 [Melissa]
we talk about it photography wise, but when you read that, you don’t think of it as a topic.
00:06:23 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:06:23 [Alison]
And and that’s what the whole episode is about, is talking about how the eighty twenty rule applies to the things we do in our photography business.
00:06:30 [Alison]
Right?
00:06:30 [Alison]
20% of my blog posts get me 80% of my traffic.

00:06:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:06:34 [Melissa]
Right?
00:06:35 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:06:35 [Melissa]
And so that’s yeah.
00:06:37 [Melissa]
So it’s a good one that we I mean, with all of our topics, we try to take something and spin it towards our businesses and photography, and hopefully it’ll help you.

00:06:44 [Melissa]
So that is our number one most downloaded episode.
00:06:47 [Melissa]
Allison, what is our number two?

00:06:49 [Alison]
Alright.
00:06:49 [Alison]
Two with 405 downloads.
00:06:52 [Alison]
This one is number 80, very recent, photography website redesign SEO checklist.
00:06:59 [Alison]
Talk about an SEO friendly title.
00:07:01 [Alison]
All the things that people wanna know about.

00:07:03 [Alison]
Right?
00:07:04 [Alison]
Photography, website, SEO, and a checklist.
00:07:07 [Alison]
So that I think that’s no surprise there.

00:07:09 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:09 [Melissa]
That was one that all you guys I know you were sitting down in January and you’re like, I’m gonna redo my website and, please don’t mess up your SEO.
00:07:16 [Melissa]
So we did a whole episode about it, and then I gave you a checklist.
00:07:19 [Melissa]
So the the we’ll have all the notes also in the show notes.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
You guys can just click on those to go to them, and so you can get you can get those checklist if you missed out on it the first time.

00:07:28 [Alison]
That one’s

00:07:28 [Melissa]
See you?

00:07:29 [Alison]
Really a really good episode title and epic timing because that one came out 01/05/2026 this year.

00:07:34 [Melissa]
So It’s almost like Melissa planned it.

00:07:37 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:37 [Alison]
It’s like we almost knew what we were doing.
00:07:39 [Alison]
Good job.
00:07:40 [Alison]
Alright.
00:07:40 [Alison]
Number three.

00:07:41 [Melissa]
Oh, number three.
00:07:42 [Melissa]
Seven ways to make money when your photography business is, I think, is slow.
00:07:47 [Melissa]
Right?

00:07:47 [Alison]
It’s slow.
00:07:48 [Alison]
Yep.
00:07:48 [Alison]
Yep.
00:07:48 [Alison]
Yep.
00:07:48 [Alison]
Yep.

00:07:49 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:49 [Melissa]
Again, so timing.
00:07:50 [Melissa]
And it’s funny when we’ve done those episodes and then I as we talk about the different ways we’ve made money when business is slow, it’s like, oh, I forgot I did that.

00:07:57 [Alison]
It all comes out.
00:07:58 [Alison]
It’s like Yeah.
00:07:59 [Alison]
It’s like a rabbit hole or, like, just a a deep deep hole can of worms of, like, oh, yeah.
00:08:04 [Alison]
And that and that and that.
00:08:06 [Alison]
The crux of it, guys.

00:08:07 [Alison]
Get creative and don’t be afraid to try something new.
00:08:09 [Alison]
But that was that was

00:08:10 [Melissa]
And if you’re feeling slow, go listen.
00:08:12 [Melissa]
Go listen and get some ideas.
00:08:13 [Melissa]
Like she said, it might spark some new ideas for you.

00:08:16 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:08:17 [Alison]
And that was from February 16.
00:08:18 [Alison]
So those are very recent episodes.
00:08:20 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:08:21 [Alison]
Number four, our fourth most downloaded episode is episode 84.

00:08:25 [Alison]
And another very recent one, digital organization, the files, folders, and finally getting your stuff together.

00:08:33 [Melissa]
I told Allison, I said, I bet that one got a lot of stuff because we put a cuss word.
00:08:37 [Melissa]
Well, it’s not fully in there.
00:08:38 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:39 [Melissa]
It wasn’t.
00:08:39 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:08:39 [Melissa]
Got appealed to the menu.

00:08:41 [Alison]
Did we put the explicit mark on that?
00:08:42 [Alison]
I don’t even remember.
00:08:43 [Alison]
But, yeah, like, that’s that’s another episode or, you know, just evidence of files and folders.
00:08:49 [Alison]
Nobody seems to talk about that stuff and how Yeah.
00:08:52 [Alison]
Annoying and, but, yeah, every time I

00:08:55 [Melissa]
Well, but I feel like photographers like to geek out on, do you create one Lightroom catalog or do you create one for each session?
00:09:00 [Melissa]
Like, that’s a topic that happens at photography meetups.
00:09:03 [Melissa]
Everybody wants to know, like, where do you store stuff?
00:09:04 [Melissa]
Is it an external drive?
00:09:06 [Melissa]
Local?

00:09:07 [Alison]
That’s an Instagram draws.
00:09:08 [Alison]
That’s an Instagram poll waiting to happen right there.
00:09:10 [Alison]
We need to do that.

00:09:12 [Melissa]
Just as I take So, yeah, so that was a good one.
00:09:14 [Melissa]
And then our rounding out our top five, again, was from, January, and it was image SEO made simple for photographers.
00:09:21 [Melissa]
Again, I was thinking about you guys and changing out your website stuff and updating, and so I wanna make sure that you could take care of your image SEO and get it right and not mess everything up as you add beautiful new photos.
00:09:34 [Melissa]
So it was funny because we were like, these are all pretty recent, and I think it’s because, thanks to you guys, we’ve been growing a lot more in the last couple months and everything.
00:09:42 [Melissa]
So please keep sharing us with whomever you’re sharing us with.

00:09:46 [Melissa]
Tagging our podcast in in Facebook groups and stuff like that and dropping the link.
00:09:50 [Melissa]
We really appreciate it.
00:09:51 [Melissa]
But we had a lot of episodes that are before that, that if you’re new and you’re, well, I don’t definitely know if I wanna go back and listen to a 100 episodes of you guys yet.

00:10:00 [Alison]
You’ll get a chance for summer.
00:10:01 [Alison]
When you’re traveling this summer.
00:10:04 [Alison]
Do that.
00:10:04 [Alison]
Just deep dive all that.
00:10:06 [Alison]
But yeah.

00:10:06 [Alison]
So, so Melissa, what were some of your, like, favorite episodes?

00:10:11 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:11 [Melissa]
So I really liked episode 46, our time blocking calendar episode.
00:10:16 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:16 [Melissa]
Allison and I have talked about this.
00:10:18 [Melissa]
I said it the other day to somebody.

00:10:19 [Melissa]
I was like, I have no meeting Mondays and no meeting Fridays as much as possible, and that’s something where I block that time on my calendar.
00:10:26 [Melissa]
And then Yeah.
00:10:27 [Melissa]
When I and then Tuesday is my meeting day.
00:10:29 [Melissa]
As many meetings as possible that are reoccurring happen on Tuesday, so then I always know if somebody’s like, can you do this on this Tuesday?
00:10:36 [Melissa]
No.

00:10:36 [Melissa]
I’ve I always have a meeting on Tuesdays.
00:10:38 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:38 [Melissa]
You know?
00:10:39 [Melissa]
And then that just helps me with getting my other one, I’m calling the doctor’s office.
00:10:42 [Melissa]
You know?

00:10:42 [Melissa]
I’m like, nope.
00:10:42 [Melissa]
Can’t do Tuesday, but I can do Monday or Friday easily.
00:10:45 [Melissa]
So, yeah, time blocking to me of just, it can be time blocking to mark days off.
00:10:50 [Melissa]
It could be time blocking to mark time to work.
00:10:53 [Melissa]
Mhmm.

00:10:53 [Melissa]
Maybe you’re time blocking a weekend.
00:10:55 [Melissa]
Just a quick shout out on other stuff we’ve done for, like, a workcation, and you’re gonna time block that time to work on a specific project.

00:11:01 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:02 [Alison]
I do it by day.
00:11:02 [Alison]
So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I’m always doing lead gen.
00:11:05 [Alison]
So if I I’m I respond to new inquiries anytime of the day, almost anytime.
00:11:09 [Alison]
But when it comes to follow ups, client call, getting on those discovery calls, that’s Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:11:14 [Alison]
Tuesday, Thursday are reserved for mentoring discovery calls, mentoring client stuff.
00:11:20 [Alison]
And it’s just putting that hat on.
00:11:22 [Alison]
I can’t put those two different hats on in the same day unless, like, extenuating circumstances.
00:11:26 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:11:26 [Alison]
Field trip happened and totally messed up my week.

00:11:28 [Alison]
That’s fine.
00:11:29 [Alison]
But even then, I do it by, like, okay.
00:11:31 [Alison]
Hours of mentoring, hours of photography.
00:11:34 [Alison]
I cannot going back and forth.
00:11:36 [Alison]
No.

00:11:36 [Alison]
No.
00:11:36 [Alison]
No.
00:11:36 [Alison]
No.
00:11:37 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:11:37 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:38 [Melissa]
So that’s a good one.
00:11:38 [Melissa]
That’s episode 46.
00:11:40 [Melissa]
So go back and check that out.
00:11:41 [Melissa]
My next one on my list was episode six on email marketing, just because I want you guys doing more email marketing.

00:11:47 [Melissa]
And we’re about to record another episode on cleaning up your email list so that I think that actually will have come out the week before this comes out.

00:11:53 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:54 [Alison]
And just a little teaser, I’ve got two more workshops coming up for 2026, and email marketing might be the next one.
00:12:01 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:12:01 [Alison]
Some variation of client communication is the next one.
00:12:04 [Alison]
It’s probably gonna be early September, and Mhmm.

00:12:06 [Alison]
So keep your eyes peeled on that.
00:12:08 [Alison]
I got a wait list.
00:12:09 [Alison]
I’ll put the wait list in the show notes if you want information on that one.

00:12:12 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:12 [Melissa]
So with email marketing and stuff, you know, really thinking about I know it can be hard to feel like, well, what am I gonna email my client?
00:12:17 [Melissa]
So we talk all about that.
00:12:19 [Melissa]
We talk about lead I think we talk a little bit about lead magnets in there.
00:12:22 [Melissa]
If not, we also have a lead magnet Yep.

00:12:24 [Melissa]
Lead magnet episode that you can always go and find.
00:12:27 [Melissa]
But, yeah, email marketing, I feel like that is one that a lot of times we sleep on.
00:12:31 [Melissa]
And, Allison, you were saying with your workshop, a lot of your bookings came from your email list.
00:12:35 [Melissa]
Right?

00:12:35 [Alison]
Yes.
00:12:35 [Alison]
So I would say at least 50%, probably more came directly from email marketing.
00:12:41 [Alison]
And y’all, I was doing Instagram posts like crazy.
00:12:44 [Alison]
Like, I’m experimenting.
00:12:46 [Alison]
I was posting days a week for, like, the last three weeks knowing this workshop was coming.

00:12:50 [Alison]
Right?
00:12:50 [Alison]
Like, trying to get in front of people, increase engagement, viewership, follower, and what have you.
00:12:54 [Alison]
And I was doing all kinds of stuff from, like, the the funny things, the funny mom stuff, the funny photographer stuff, the funny Mills style stuff, the helpful stuff, the tips, tips that were related to blogging and that seemed blah blah blah blah.
00:13:05 [Alison]
Right?
00:13:05 [Alison]
I was doing the things.

00:13:07 [Alison]
I don’t know maybe if one or two came from Instagram.
00:13:11 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:13:11 [Alison]
Maybe.
00:13:12 [Alison]
But I don’t know because there’s almost impossible to track that.
00:13:15 [Alison]
But I can tell you I can tell you the value of workshop attendees were email people.

00:13:21 [Alison]
People who have been Yeah.
00:13:22 [Alison]
Around.
00:13:23 [Alison]
P and and y’all say, you know Yeah.
00:13:25 [Alison]
I launched it a month ago to the email list, but most of the I would say 50% of the actual purchases were made within three to four days before the actual workshop hit from the email list.

00:13:37 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:37 [Melissa]
So keep that in mind.
00:13:38 [Melissa]
I mean, we’ve got a friend that she does Santa Minis, and she launches it to her email list, and she books a ton from that.
00:13:43 [Melissa]
And I would tell you too when it comes to email, keep emailing.
00:13:46 [Melissa]
Keep emailing.

00:13:47 [Melissa]
Keep emailing.
00:13:48 [Melissa]
People don’t see them.

00:13:49 [Alison]
When I say I emailed in the last two to three last three to four days and that most of those workshop purchases came in those three to four days, I was emailing twice a day.
00:13:58 [Alison]
It wasn’t it wasn’t full it wasn’t full on, like, stories and problems on it.
00:14:03 [Alison]
It was Yeah.
00:14:04 [Alison]
Oh, I just got my, like, one of them was my performance report where it tells me which blog page and how many clicks I got from them on.
00:14:10 [Alison]
And I sent it on a Monday and I was so important and so vital.

00:14:14 [Alison]
And I wanted them to understand the value of blogging in numbers in a quantitative way that I sent it again the same day.
00:14:20 [Alison]
And I said, Hey, and that’s all it was, was a picture.
00:14:22 [Alison]
And I was like, what was a picture?
00:14:24 [Alison]
It was a screenshot of my numbers and a one sentence explanation of what those numbers are.
00:14:28 [Alison]
And this, the second email was, I just wanna make sure you saw those numbers.

00:14:31 [Alison]
And then again, today I mean, short two, three sentences.
00:14:34 [Alison]
Easy.
00:14:34 [Alison]
Easy peasy.
00:14:35 [Alison]
So and I got 50% of the purchases were happening, I think, based off those emails because people don’t see them.
00:14:40 [Alison]
People do not see them.

00:14:41 [Alison]
So and also So no hate replies either.
00:14:45 [Alison]
So

00:14:46 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:46 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:46 [Melissa]
That’s the other thing too.
00:14:47 [Melissa]
People always were like, well, somebody’s gonna email me back.

00:14:49 [Alison]
They’re good tired

00:14:50 [Melissa]
of me emailing.
00:14:50 [Melissa]
No.
00:14:51 [Melissa]
No.
00:14:51 [Melissa]
I wasn’t talking about you should yeah.
00:14:52 [Melissa]
You should be emailing your list.

00:14:54 [Melissa]
So go listen to that episode, episode 76 on email marketing.
00:14:57 [Melissa]
And then my last one that I have goes way back to episode 39, and it is on Profit First.
00:15:03 [Melissa]
And I’ve been around as an OG.
00:15:04 [Melissa]
You know, Allison and I Yes.
00:15:06 [Melissa]
Love Profit First.

00:15:07 [Melissa]
We love that book.
00:15:08 [Melissa]
And so it’s a short read.
00:15:10 [Melissa]
In fact, I actually was looking for it.
00:15:11 [Melissa]
I don’t have a hard copy of it.
00:15:12 [Melissa]
I have it on my I think I have it on Audible or on Kindle, but I’m mad because I wanna pull it out and look at a certain page.

00:15:18 [Melissa]
So I think I’m gonna have to order a hard copy so I have it because I need to refresh my numbers on if I’m moving up to the next level on what you know, it’s like you start off on step one kind of thing, and it’s, okay.
00:15:28 [Melissa]
I’m making more money.
00:15:28 [Melissa]
What is the next step kind of stuff?

00:15:30 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:15:30 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:15:30 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:15:31 [Melissa]
Profit First.
00:15:32 [Melissa]
I don’t care if you aren’t if you have not made a dime and you’re you still need to read Profit First because it’s gonna tell you what to do with your money when it comes in.
00:15:41 [Melissa]
And I think that’s the big thing.
00:15:42 [Melissa]
You think, oh, I made a $100 on this session.

00:15:45 [Melissa]
That’s just going straight to my checking account, and you don’t realize, no.
00:15:48 [Melissa]
No.
00:15:48 [Melissa]
No.
00:15:48 [Melissa]
You need to pull money for taxes.
00:15:50 [Melissa]
You need to pull money for operating expenses.

00:15:52 [Melissa]
You need to have money that is your owner’s compensation and then money for profit.
00:15:56 [Melissa]
And so I still use those in my business every day.
00:15:59 [Melissa]
Every time a new sale comes in, it gets divvied out between those things.
00:16:03 [Melissa]
To me, too, what I love about Profit First is he’s very been when you set those numbers, then you know your business is profitable because you’re actually putting money into the profit account.
00:16:13 [Melissa]
And you have a certain number that’s your expenses, and you get paid first.

00:16:16 [Melissa]
That’s the other thing too.
00:16:17 [Melissa]
Like, you get paid first, your profit gets paid first, taxes get set aside.
00:16:20 [Melissa]
So what’s left is what’s left for expenses.
00:16:22 [Melissa]
So it really forces you not to overspend, which is hard.
00:16:25 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:16:25 [Melissa]
I’ve definitely been an overspender in the past.
00:16:27 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:16:28 [Melissa]
And now I know this is how much I have to spend for expenses.
00:16:32 [Melissa]
And if things start getting too high, I know right now I need to go through some of my memberships because I just signed up for a new one.
00:16:37 [Melissa]
And I’m like, alright.

00:16:37 [Melissa]
Well, new one, an old one’s gotta go because you’re you’ve got too much going on kinda thing.
00:16:42 [Melissa]
But we really love it.
00:16:43 [Melissa]
It’s, you can find it on Audible probably.
00:16:45 [Melissa]
You can find it on Kindle.
00:16:46 [Melissa]
It’s called Profit First.

00:16:47 [Melissa]
It’s a very short read, but it’s gonna tell you percentages and what to do with your money, whether you haven’t made any yet or you are making it and you just feel like you’re behind.
00:16:56 [Melissa]
And so I think it’s such a super important episode to go listen to and and the book to go read.
00:17:01 [Melissa]
So that’s that’s rounding out my top three.

00:17:03 [Alison]
Awesome.
00:17:04 [Alison]
That’s a good man, we’ve talked all about some really good stuff and we can keep talking about it apparently.

00:17:10 [Melissa]
Hey, quick break to tell you about something that could change your business.
00:17:12 [Melissa]
One of my students, London was stuck relying on referrals and social media before she joined found and booked my SEO group coaching program.
00:17:20 [Melissa]
Less than a year later, she’s ranking on page one of Google, raised her prices, and left her 6 figure job to go full time with photography.
00:17:27 [Melissa]
If you want results like that, I’m hosting a free masterclass called the five SEO mistakes killing your photography business.
00:17:33 [Melissa]
I’ll show you exactly what’s keeping you invisible on Google and how to fix it.

00:17:37 [Melissa]
The link to register is in the show notes or head to pictureperfectranking.com/mistakes.

00:17:44 [Alison]
Alright.
00:17:45 [Alison]
Okay.
00:17:45 [Alison]
So for my top three, first one, episode 54, client automation.
00:17:51 [Alison]
This is we really, I think we’ve probably talked a lot about CRMs and client automation community.
00:17:55 [Alison]
This really is all about the communicating aspect of, of inquiry.

00:18:00 [Alison]
So whether you’re getting inquiries and new leads in, or you’ve booked somebody, communicating a lot of the same things have to be said over and over and over again, just because it’s in your contract, you need to repeat it several times.
00:18:12 [Alison]
Just speak once, one time they either didn’t hear you or didn’t see it.
00:18:15 [Alison]
And so automating those things that have to be said every single time and the education and the preparation, that’s what episode 54 is all about.
00:18:23 [Alison]
And I am a huge believer in that.
00:18:24 [Alison]
Sometimes, I have leaned so hard on it here in my photography stuff the last year and a half, two years that I kinda forget if I’m telling them things.

00:18:33 [Alison]
And, like, in the last few months, I’ve gone back and be like, oh, I need to set up a auto an email for that.
00:18:36 [Alison]
Oh, I need to do that.
00:18:37 [Alison]
It’s already there.
00:18:38 [Alison]
I already did it and I don’t remember it.
00:18:40 [Alison]
I’ve already already put it into the flow and the automation and away it went.

00:18:44 [Alison]
It’s a client automation to take some things off your plate.
00:18:46 [Alison]
Basically, a VA, guys.
00:18:48 [Alison]
It’s just a VA.
00:18:49 [Alison]
Okay?
00:18:50 [Alison]
So my second favorite this is probably this might just be because I’m coming fresh off of the blogging workshop.

00:18:57 [Alison]
Episode 49, our favorite keyword research tool.
00:19:01 [Alison]
Spoiler, it’s called Keywords Everywhere.
00:19:03 [Alison]
We still love it.
00:19:04 [Alison]
It has increased its prices.
00:19:05 [Alison]
We still love it.

00:19:06 [Melissa]
Suck it up.

00:19:07 [Alison]
Suck it up a bit.
00:19:08 [Alison]
We used to be okay.
00:19:09 [Alison]
Guys, tell you how old how long we’ve been doing this.
00:19:11 [Alison]
We used to pay $10 for what they’re charging.

00:19:14 [Melissa]
A year.
00:19:15 [Melissa]
$10 a year.

00:19:16 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:16 [Alison]
And they didn’t ex did they expire back then?
00:19:19 [Alison]
I think those should expire

00:19:20 [Melissa]
after a year.
00:19:21 [Melissa]
Oh, wait.
00:19:22 [Melissa]
No.
00:19:22 [Melissa]
I think they didn’t.
00:19:23 [Melissa]
I think they didn’t.

00:19:24 [Melissa]
And then it then it went up a little bit and then they started expiring.
00:19:27 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:19:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:28 [Alison]
So we’ve been using it a really long time.
00:19:31 [Alison]
We really like it.
00:19:32 [Alison]
It’s still the best tool for, for, knowing what to blog, how to blog and what keywords to target.

00:19:38 [Alison]
So yes, go listen to that.
00:19:40 [Alison]
Nothing has changed other than the price and the fact that they don’t have an affiliate link.
00:19:44 [Alison]
Y’all they don’t have affiliates.
00:19:45 [Alison]
You know, we would be using the if if they did.
00:19:47 [Alison]
We would, but They don’t.

00:19:49 [Alison]
They don’t.
00:19:50 [Alison]
And that’s how much we like it.
00:19:51 [Alison]
Okay?
00:19:52 [Alison]
There’s no

00:19:52 [Melissa]
I feel like it would have made so much money if they had an affiliate link at this point.

00:19:56 [Alison]
Oh my god.
00:19:56 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:56 [Alison]
You would have for sure.
00:19:58 [Alison]
For sure.
00:19:59 [Alison]
And then my third favorite, episode 50, stop ghosting your own leads.

00:20:07 [Alison]
I have lost interest in so many photographers when my inquiries aren’t responded to in in a reasonable manner, and I’m talking three days would be reasonable.
00:20:16 [Alison]
I’ve been ghosted for weeks.
00:20:18 [Alison]
I have been confused on what mode of communication is appropriate.
00:20:22 [Alison]
I’ve I’ve been so confused and so lost on the process as a photographer trying to hire another photographer that I just y’all, You’re doing yourself a disfavor, a disservice.

00:20:31 [Melissa]
So And that also covers not following up.
00:20:33 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:33 [Melissa]
Not following up.
00:20:34 [Melissa]
One email does not mean that, a, that they got it, b, that they saw it, or, c, maybe they saw it, but they forgot about it.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
And Yeah.

00:20:42 [Melissa]
Like, especially for me, I’m like, dude, I need a lot of reminders now and stuff.
00:20:45 [Melissa]
So please keep if I’ve reached out to you on something, please keep her please keep reminding me until I’m okay enough.
00:20:51 [Melissa]
I changed my

00:20:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:20:53 [Alison]
I, if if I don’t hear from a new lead, I am sending them another email every other day.
00:21:00 [Alison]
They get the auto under at the time of submitting their web form.
00:21:03 [Alison]
And then if I don’t hear from them, they get a follow-up one, and then two days later, another follow-up, and then two days later after that, another follow-up.
00:21:10 [Alison]
So four emails before I’m okay.

00:21:12 [Alison]
And I’m even considering just based off my own inbox experiences, it might be a fourth email might be okay.
00:21:19 [Alison]
Be like, hey.
00:21:20 [Alison]
Just double checking you didn’t miss that you missed all the other emails.
00:21:23 [Alison]
It’s a lot.
00:21:24 [Alison]
It’s a lot.

00:21:24 [Alison]
But Yeah.
00:21:26 [Alison]
It it really does work, guys.
00:21:27 [Alison]
It does work.

00:21:28 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:21:29 [Melissa]
So hopefully Yeah.
00:21:30 [Melissa]
You’ll go check out the show notes and click on some episodes.
00:21:33 [Melissa]
Maybe if we can get our stuff together, we might actually add a little show note download for you guys with all the episodes in a PDF or something.
00:21:39 [Melissa]
We’ll see if

00:21:39 [Alison]
we can

00:21:40 [Melissa]
make that work.

00:21:41 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:21:42 [Melissa]
But here, we do have a big ask on our hundredth episode.
00:21:46 [Melissa]
Pretty, pretty, pretty, please.
00:21:48 [Melissa]
We would really love it if you guys if you liked our podcast, please go leave us a review.
00:21:53 [Melissa]
Because here’s the thing.
00:21:54 [Melissa]
Allison and I are on an island here.

00:21:55 [Melissa]
I mean, every once in a while, I’ll see one of you guys drop our podcast in in a Facebook group or and so I’m like, oh, somebody likes us.
00:22:02 [Melissa]
Or, like, I might comment, oh, hey.
00:22:03 [Melissa]
You know, podcast, and somebody’s like, oh, I already listened to it.
00:22:05 [Melissa]
I love it, which is great, but we would love it if we could get some more reviews from you guys.
00:22:10 [Melissa]
Just because, you know, it makes us who doesn’t love a review?

00:22:12 [Melissa]
Y’all come on.
00:22:13 [Melissa]
Who doesn’t love being told I like your stuff?
00:22:15 [Melissa]
If you hate us, you can just send us a DM on that and maybe not leave a review, but, you know, it really pushes

00:22:21 [Alison]
us out.
00:22:21 [Alison]
You know how SEO geeky we are.
00:22:24 [Alison]
It pushes it out.
00:22:25 [Alison]
More reviews, more people will see us, more photographers will get that support that they need.
00:22:29 [Alison]
Just some stars work, but also we would really like some words.

00:22:33 [Alison]
If you’ve already left us a review, because in a discount we have, there are several views.
00:22:37 [Alison]
Thank you so much.
00:22:38 [Alison]
If you’ve already done that, if you would just screenshot this episode or screenshot, you know, your Apple playlist or Spotify and just throw it in your stories and tag me.
00:22:49 [Alison]
If you tag me, I get to reshare it and then I know.
00:22:52 [Alison]
But if you would just push it out, tag us, get book podcasts, picture book rankings, all those links are in the show notes.

00:22:57 [Alison]
If you would just share it with your people, that would be really helpful.
00:23:00 [Alison]
Thank you.

00:23:01 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:23:01 [Melissa]
We don’t normally ask, but we figure it’s our hundredth it’s like our birthday kind of thing.
00:23:05 [Melissa]
Right.

00:23:05 [Alison]
It’s just a gift to us.
00:23:06 [Alison]
Right?
00:23:06 [Alison]
Our gift.
00:23:07 [Alison]
That’d be so good.

00:23:07 [Melissa]
It’s a birthday gift.
00:23:08 [Melissa]
It’s our hundredth episode gift from you to us, and we gave you the gift of telling you what episodes we think you should go back and listen to.
00:23:15 [Melissa]
So That’s right.
00:23:15 [Melissa]
Thanks for hanging out with us, guys.

00:23:17 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:23:17 [Alison]
Thanks for being here.
00:23:18 [Alison]
Keep sharing.
00:23:19 [Alison]
Keep listening.
00:23:20 [Alison]
And as always, reach out to us on the gram if you have any questions or episode ideas.

00:23:26 [Alison]
Alright.
00:23:26 [Alison]
Bye bye.

00:23:29 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:23:30 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:23:33 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:23:34 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:23:35 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bill spouse or anyone facing moving their business.

00:23:40 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:23:44 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at Allison belle photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:23:53 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.