Ep 8: How to Announce Your Move

00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey, I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two

00:00:16 [Melissa]
of us, we have

00:00:17 [Melissa]
a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.

00:00:34 [Melissa]
Hey, guys.
00:00:34 [Melissa]
So last episode, we deep dived researching and planning the hashtags for your move.
00:00:39 [Melissa]
This week, we’re gonna cover how to announce.
00:00:41 [Melissa]
But there are some things you need to consider first.
00:00:43 [Melissa]
So I’m gonna kick it over to Allison to

00:00:45 [Alison]
get started.
00:00:46 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:00:46 [Alison]
So this is the thing I’ve gotten a lot of questions on recently is how to announce.
00:00:51 [Alison]
You got a consistent, Skye.
00:00:53 [Alison]
So before you ever announce anybody in Telsol, whether it’s publicly or privately, is you need to get your business straight.

00:00:59 [Alison]
Do you have a studio?
00:01:00 [Alison]
Do you have a lease?
00:01:02 [Alison]
Can you handle that from a distance?
00:01:03 [Alison]
When is your lease going to be up?
00:01:05 [Alison]
How far are you moving away from your current studio?

00:01:08 [Alison]
Do you have the guts to maintain that lease with nobody in there from a distance that you’re moving?
00:01:16 [Alison]
What about storm damage?
00:01:18 [Alison]
What if your stuff gets ruined and you’re not there and nobody knows about it?
00:01:21 [Alison]
Do you need to sublet?
00:01:22 [Alison]
Are you allowed to sublet?

00:01:23 [Alison]
You need to consider all of those things about your business first before you can make your plan.
00:01:31 [Alison]
I actually have a client right now who is considering all those things.
00:01:34 [Alison]
She is planning to move six months before her lease is up.
00:01:39 [Alison]
And like she has had damage.
00:01:40 [Alison]
She has experienced all these things.

00:01:42 [Alison]
It’s not for the faint of heart.

00:01:44 [Melissa]
No.
00:01:44 [Melissa]
And even if you’re not, a studio photographer and stuff like that, you really have got to look at your current bookings, your final schedule for sessions and stuff.
00:01:52 [Melissa]
When it comes to current bookings, like, we’re gonna talk a little bit more later on seeing it, but I highly recommend you are gonna give your clients the plan and their options.
00:02:01 [Melissa]
Like, you’re not gonna just be like, oh, hey.
00:02:03 [Melissa]
Guess what?

00:02:03 [Melissa]
I’m moving.
00:02:04 [Melissa]
And then that’s it.
00:02:05 [Melissa]
And then they come back to you and they’re, like, freaking out.
00:02:07 [Melissa]
So you’re gonna tell you’re gonna come up with a plan ahead of time of, like, how are you gonna handle those bookings?
00:02:12 [Melissa]
Are you gonna, just punt them off to an associate?

00:02:15 [Melissa]
And I don’t mean punt it off.
00:02:16 [Melissa]
Are you gonna bring on an associate shooter like Allison has done before?
00:02:20 [Melissa]
Or are you going to get them in earlier, that kind of thing, and really figuring out and that goes along hand in hand with that final question.
00:02:27 [Melissa]
How long do you want to be shooting for as you get closer to your move date and stuff?
00:02:31 [Melissa]
When do you wanna cut that off?

00:02:33 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:02:33 [Alison]
And that we’ve talked about it before in a previous episode, like you wanted your stuff edited and delivered before you left.
00:02:39 [Alison]
And I was taking sessions the day before we left town.
00:02:41 [Alison]
So you got to decide.
00:02:43 [Alison]
No matter what you do, you want to keep it positive.

00:02:47 [Alison]
No matter what words you choose, what people are thinking about us, and no matter how you announce it, no matter where you’re announcing it to, or whatever words you choose to say, keep it positive.
00:02:59 [Alison]
It’s really easy to get up in our head about what are people gonna think, especially if you’ve been in a place for a really long time.
00:03:06 [Alison]
If you’ve never moved your business, if you’ve been a photographer for ten, fifteen years in the same place, you haven’t maybe even haven’t pivot niches and you’ve worked with the same people for a really long time, you’ve maybe grown up in that town, you can really get sensitive to what are people gonna say and think.
00:03:22 [Alison]
And don’t even let yourself go there.
00:03:24 [Alison]
That’s a mental game, you don’t need to play.

00:03:25 [Alison]
You’ve got plenty of things to think about and stress about you just need to keep it positive because it is.
00:03:30 [Alison]
It’s a positive thing that you’re moving.
00:03:32 [Alison]
So regardless of the reason, maybe it’s because you just wanna move.
00:03:35 [Alison]
You’re moving to a prettier place.
00:03:37 [Alison]
Maybe it’s for a work for your husband’s job, your spouse’s for whatever reason is, just keep it positive.

00:03:42 [Alison]
Because if you put positive vibes out there, you’re gonna get on back.
00:03:46 [Alison]
So when it comes to the nitty gritty of how to announce we’re moving, where do

00:03:52 [Melissa]
we start?
00:03:54 [Melissa]
So for me, this it reminded me a lot of when I was a wedding photographer and I started popping out babies.
00:04:01 [Melissa]
And that first time that I was like, I gotta tell people that I’m pregnant and you try I haven’t met a wedding photographer yet who hasn’t tried to plan a baby for the off season.
00:04:10 [Melissa]
And I thought I did a pretty good job, and it was born in October, so not so good there.
00:04:14 [Melissa]
Next one was born, like, end of December, so that was great.

00:04:17 [Melissa]
I really thought about that kind of thing of okay.
00:04:19 [Melissa]
And it goes back to that plan.
00:04:21 [Melissa]
So whether it was my wedding clients or my membership clients, when I emailed them, I did direct emails individually to them.
00:04:28 [Melissa]
This is not a time with you have a booked client to just send some email blast that says, hey.
00:04:33 [Melissa]
We’re moving, and just have them learn about it with everybody else.

00:04:37 [Melissa]
You wanna have an individual plan for each and every one of those.
00:04:40 [Melissa]
Even with the wedding clients, I had a plan for them.
00:04:42 [Melissa]
At that time, I brought in extra photographers.
00:04:46 [Melissa]
So I think the wedding that I had done right before I had my oldest, I I had a wedding that Saturday.
00:04:51 [Melissa]
So this is where I was like you, Allison.

00:04:53 [Melissa]
I did a wedding on Saturday and had a baby on Monday.

00:04:56 [Alison]
That’s crazy.
00:04:57 [Alison]
And then I

00:04:57 [Melissa]
was back shooting another wedding, like, three weeks later.
00:04:59 [Melissa]
But I had I hired two yeah.
00:05:02 [Melissa]
I hired two second shooters.
00:05:03 [Melissa]
So I had one girl who had been with me the whole time, like an associate photographer at that point, and then I brought in a third girl to back her up.
00:05:10 [Melissa]
And so it was it might have been a little bit of overkill, but I joked around at the time that if I went into labor, they were to wheel the curb for for the ambulance to come get me, and then they were to go back in and pretend like nothing had ever happened.

00:05:19 [Melissa]
And, like, not stress yeah.
00:05:20 [Melissa]
Not stress out the bride or anything.
00:05:22 [Melissa]
Membership clients can be the kind of the same way.
00:05:24 [Melissa]
You’ve got to have a plan.
00:05:26 [Melissa]
Don’t let them dictate the plan to you.

00:05:28 [Melissa]
So when it came to weddings yeah.
00:05:30 [Melissa]
When it came to weddings, for me, I didn’t give them I didn’t say, if you wanna cancel your services, you can do that.
00:05:38 [Melissa]
Like, I I said, this is what the plan is.
00:05:40 [Melissa]
We’re and I kept it positive.
00:05:41 [Melissa]
Allison talked about it.

00:05:42 [Melissa]
I was like, we’re so excited to share this.
00:05:44 [Melissa]
We’re gonna have our first baby.
00:05:45 [Melissa]
We can’t wait.
00:05:46 [Melissa]
Baby’s due around your wedding day, so this is my plan.
00:05:50 [Melissa]
And I learned the the humility lesson or something, the lesson of nobody really cared if Melissa or Lina was at their wedding.

00:05:57 [Melissa]
They just cared that the photos look like what they look like on my website.
00:06:00 [Melissa]
Site.
00:06:00 [Melissa]
I was like, I’m not famous I’m not famous like Caitlin James.
00:06:03 [Melissa]
People didn’t necessarily need me at their wedding.
00:06:05 [Melissa]
They just needed the photos type thing.

00:06:07 [Melissa]
So I came at them with a plan.
00:06:09 [Melissa]
So if you are, like, a wedding photographer and you’re moving, can you travel back?
00:06:12 [Melissa]
Because if you can travel back, I would get nitty gritty with them on your wedding is Saturday first.
00:06:18 [Melissa]
I will be traveling into your for your wedding the previous morning or something.
00:06:23 [Melissa]
Like, you really especially with weddings and stuff like that that are time sensitive, you need to have a plan that’s gonna cover travel issues and stuff like that.

00:06:30 [Melissa]
And then I would beyond that, I would have someone on standby of if for some reason, maybe it’s your second shooter, and then you have a third person who’s on standby to become the second shared shooter.
00:06:40 [Melissa]
But these are the types of plans that you really you’ve gotta think about.
00:06:43 [Melissa]
So with me, when I moved from, Northern Virginia down to Florida, I had membership clients.
00:06:48 [Melissa]
And so it was like and the center of Florida back up.
00:06:50 [Melissa]
So I reached out to those membership clients, and the ones that were close, then we go ahead we went ahead and got the session in before we left.

00:06:57 [Melissa]
Just let them know.
00:06:58 [Melissa]
And they knew.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
Anyone who met me down in South Florida knew I was not thrilled to be down there.
00:07:02 [Melissa]
They knew that Melissa had a time clock and was probably gonna be pulling ranks and going.
00:07:07 [Melissa]
But and then the ones who were due after after I was leaving, I could have probably worked it out with another photographer to shoot it for me and stuff, but I’ve just never had the balls to set that up.

00:07:17 [Melissa]
I’m always worried that something will go wrong, and I just I freak out.
00:07:20 [Melissa]
There’s a lot.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
So for them, I knew ahead of time when they booked because I had let them know, hey.

00:07:26 [Melissa]
It’s quite possible I won’t be here for your entire membership.
00:07:29 [Melissa]
If that happens, I’m gonna refund half your membership fee.
00:07:32 [Melissa]
So I was out, like, $300 per client for those clients that I did.
00:07:36 [Melissa]
And it was fine.
00:07:36 [Melissa]
And we left on good terms, and I gave them referrals for who to go with and stuff after that.

00:07:41 [Melissa]
So you wanna directly email those clients that are gonna be affected, and you wanna have a plan for them.
00:07:47 [Melissa]
And you wanna make sure that you’re like I said, you’re telling them what’s gonna happen.
00:07:50 [Melissa]
Now if one of my wedding clients at that time had came back and not comfortable, we want a refund, I probably would have refunded just because, like, I’m the one who got knocked up, not them.
00:07:58 [Melissa]
So

00:07:58 [Alison]
That’s true.
00:07:59 [Alison]
It’s not their fault.

00:08:01 [Melissa]
And then with your direct emails too, current clients who are scheduled around that time.
00:08:05 [Melissa]
Like, maybe you went ahead.
00:08:06 [Melissa]
Maybe it’s not a membership even.
00:08:07 [Melissa]
It’s just a normal client who has a family session.
00:08:09 [Melissa]
They prebooked ahead of time.

00:08:11 [Melissa]
It’s after you leave.
00:08:12 [Melissa]
What is your plan for them?
00:08:13 [Melissa]
Can you bump them up earlier?
00:08:15 [Melissa]
Or Allison has done an associate photographer.

00:08:18 [Alison]
Yep.
00:08:18 [Alison]
And you just have to have all of that reverse engineered and time lined out.
00:08:22 [Alison]
We’ve talked about that before.
00:08:24 [Alison]
Just you can’t announce or share any information without a plan.
00:08:27 [Alison]
Otherwise, you are inviting negativity, you’re inviting apprehension, you’re inviting questions upon questions and room for assumptions, which you don’t wanna do at all.

00:08:37 [Alison]
So next is social media.
00:08:40 [Alison]
You want to use social media and an email blast.
00:08:42 [Alison]
So like maybe you don’t once you’ve taken care of your current bookings and clients and memberships, you want to go down to your list of clients.
00:08:49 [Alison]
So this might be your your wait list, People that your past clients that might be thinking about working with you.
00:08:56 [Alison]
Use your social media, get trendy with, with making that announcement fun and exciting.

00:09:00 [Alison]
Melissa’s got a story about this one.

00:09:02 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:02 [Melissa]
You guys know I am not the big Instagram person and stuff.
00:09:05 [Melissa]
Alison is the queen of everything, But I came up with an idea for a reel, and I found a music.
00:09:11 [Melissa]
I found it I don’t even know if it was trending at that time, but I found music for it.
00:09:14 [Melissa]
And I put it all together.

00:09:16 [Melissa]
I I had my kids do it.
00:09:17 [Melissa]
So, basically, we had extra moving boxes, and I had them hide in the moving boxes, which, by the way, I had to shoot that thing, like, six times because they just want to jump out of the boxes over and over.
00:09:25 [Melissa]
My daughter thought it was the greatest day ever.
00:09:27 [Melissa]
And then the song was something about I’m coming home.
00:09:30 [Melissa]
Because for me, that was what was happening.

00:09:32 [Melissa]
I was coming home.
00:09:33 [Melissa]
And even now, think about it.
00:09:34 [Melissa]
I like tear up a little bit.
00:09:35 [Melissa]
I can’t watch that reel y’all without crying every

00:09:37 [Alison]
put a link in the show notes for you guys to go see it.
00:09:40 [Alison]
It’s still out there.
00:09:40 [Alison]
It lives.
00:09:42 [Alison]
Hey.
00:09:43 [Alison]
Yes.

00:09:43 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:09:44 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?
00:09:46 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.
00:09:49 [Alison]
I want you to grab my

00:11:20 [Alison]
Remove checklist to make things a little easier.
00:11:23 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start.
00:11:26 [Alison]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:11:29 [Alison]
So head over to alisonbell.co.
00:11:31 [Alison]
That’s alisonwith1l,bell.co to get your pre move checklist.

00:11:37 [Alison]
You got this.

00:11:38 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:38 [Melissa]
But and this kind of hearkens back to our episode on creating FOMO.
00:11:42 [Melissa]
Because with that, you can hey.
00:11:44 [Melissa]
You wanna keep it you want it trendy so it’s catching, and maybe you’ll get in front of new people too.
00:11:48 [Melissa]
But you wanna catch your current client’s attention, and you wanna see if you can cash in on that FOMO of, hey, guys.

00:11:52 [Melissa]
We’re leaving.
00:11:53 [Melissa]
Like, for me, I’m coming home.
00:11:54 [Melissa]
So not only am I I’m coming home.
00:11:57 [Melissa]
So my clients down in South Florida, like, I’m leaving.
00:12:00 [Melissa]
If you want a session before I leave, like, now is the time to get it.

00:12:03 [Melissa]
And by the way, because I was even though I’m, like, two hours away from most two to three hours from most of my clients that are back up here.
00:12:10 [Melissa]
So if they wanna truck out to Charlottesville, like, I’m like, go for it.
00:12:13 [Melissa]
We’ll do a family session.
00:12:15 [Melissa]
But they to know that I was coming home because they they knew I loved living in Virginia and being closer to family.
00:12:19 [Melissa]
So I got I got comments from past clients down in Florida who were like, oh, we’re gonna miss you.

00:12:25 [Melissa]
I got comments from my clients in Virginia who were like, we’re so happy that you’re coming home kinda thing.
00:12:30 [Melissa]
And that’s one thing I will say, because you can also send this out on an email blast.
00:12:34 [Melissa]
You may get a few replies, but you will get a ton of comments on this post.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
It will become very popular for you most likely because it’s big news.

00:12:41 [Alison]
It’s exciting, big news.
00:12:42 [Alison]
You can really set those dominoes up properly if you create the memorable social media post and then tag it in your email blast out to people.
00:12:53 [Alison]
So even your email is going back to your social media, commenting and creating more interaction.

00:13:03 [Melissa]
Right.
00:13:03 [Melissa]
So I will say too, we just talked about hashtags on the last one too.
00:13:07 [Melissa]
If you are moving to an area and you are announcing it, make sure you use those hashtags that we were just talking about on that last episode for your new area to let that new area, hey, I’m coming to town.

00:13:18 [Alison]
Y’all should think about.
00:13:19 [Alison]
There’s so much to think about.
00:13:20 [Alison]
That’s why we’re here.
00:13:21 [Alison]
Okay.
00:13:21 [Alison]
And then the last place you want to make sure you’re announcing and sharing a big announcement is on your website.

00:13:27 [Alison]
You can blog about it.
00:13:29 [Alison]
It’s not gonna get you any traffic.
00:13:30 [Alison]
What keywords are you using?
00:13:32 [Alison]
Nobody’s gonna be searching for it.
00:13:33 [Alison]
It’s really more if you’re going to blog it, it’s gonna be like a home base for people to find information about what’s going on and whatnot.

00:13:40 [Alison]
You can do the same thing with social media.
00:13:42 [Alison]
What I did was I put a notification or banner bar at the top of my website.
00:13:46 [Alison]
And it said, I mean, for a month, it said, we’re moving to Hawaii.
00:13:49 [Alison]
A link to the big social media post where I announced everything that was happening.
00:13:56 [Alison]
So that sucker was up for two or three months before we left Virginia Beach and probably two or three months, maybe even four or five months after we arrived in Hawaii that I was no longer in Hawaii.

00:14:08 [Alison]
It was on every page of every webs of my entire website.
00:14:12 [Alison]
So it didn’t matter where people landed on my website, whether it was through a Where to Eat in Virginia blog post or Google or Things to Do in Sandbridge, Virginia.
00:14:23 [Alison]
I put it on the top of there that I was no longer in Virginia and that I was now serving Hawaii.

00:14:29 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:29 [Melissa]
I did the same thing.
00:14:30 [Melissa]
I had a notification bar at the top dates.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
I said, hey, we I am no longer accepting Florida sessions, but after this date, and I will start accepting Virginia sessions starting on this date.
00:14:41 [Melissa]
And I too had that at the top of all of my pages.

00:14:44 [Melissa]
And I think it was same as Allison, I think I just turned it off like a month or two ago.
00:14:48 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:14:48 [Alison]
It and it matters.
00:14:50 [Alison]
You wanna give those people a plan that was smart about the dates.
00:14:52 [Alison]
And even if you don’t have dates, if you’ve announced it, just say end of summer.
00:14:56 [Alison]
July.
00:14:57 [Alison]
Give them a month.

00:14:57 [Alison]
Give them something to work with so they have an idea of yes or no.
00:15:00 [Alison]
Can they work with you?
00:15:02 [Alison]
And then when it comes to updating your contact form, Melissa can speak to this.
00:15:07 [Alison]
She’s getting so many inquiries still for South Florida.
00:15:09 [Alison]
So put a spot on your contact form that says what city they’re in.

00:15:14 [Alison]
Make that required.

00:15:15 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:15:16 [Melissa]
It it it’s super simple.
00:15:17 [Melissa]
And the thing is, even though I have the notification bar at the top on all the pages, yeah, I still get inquiries all the time for South Florida and stuff.
00:15:26 [Melissa]
And so now I’m with you guys.
00:15:27 [Melissa]
I get super excited when I get a text message that, oh, there’s a new notification.

00:15:32 [Alison]
And the second thing you want to do on your website after you’ve got that notification bar updated is put a portion on your contact form to require whoever’s filling that out to input their city.
00:15:44 [Alison]
Melissa can speak to this.
00:15:46 [Alison]
She gets tons of inquiries even now from South Florida, even with the banner up.
00:15:51 [Alison]
So update that contact form so they know when they’re reaching out, because they’re going to blaze by all, all the things that you put up require that they have to select their city or put what city they’re located in.

00:16:02 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:02 [Melissa]
Because it makes it way easier because Allison said people don’t didn’t seem to notice the car at the top and stuff.
00:16:08 [Melissa]
But by having that that listed in there, I could make it easier, and I could have a little note that says, hey.
00:16:12 [Melissa]
If you’re in South Florida, I no longer serve that area.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
I’ve thought about doing that, and I may get to that point.

00:16:18 [Melissa]
But for now, I have that city on there, and I’m like you guys.
00:16:20 [Melissa]
Like, I get excited when I get a new inquiry coming in, and I get it texted to me.
00:16:25 [Melissa]
And if you don’t know how to do that with your CRM, definitely look into it.
00:16:28 [Melissa]
Allison and I actually both have Taabe, and we have it it’s through Google, though, that we do it.
00:16:32 [Melissa]
Right?

00:16:32 [Melissa]
It’s through Gmail, I believe.
00:16:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:34 [Melissa]
So we have a rule set up with Gmail that when a new inquiry comes in with a certain or what is it?
00:16:38 [Melissa]
Subject line.
00:16:39 [Melissa]
That’s the word.

00:16:39 [Melissa]
When it comes in with a certain subject line, it sends a text to my phone, and I can see the inquiries.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
I get that new inquiry bake, and I’m like, oh, let me go check it out.
00:16:46 [Melissa]
And then it says Fort Lauderdale.
00:16:48 [Melissa]
And I go, wah wah.
00:16:51 [Melissa]
Versus now too, if it says Charlottesville or something, then I get excited.

00:16:55 [Melissa]
But I’ve also had where I’ve had people will put in a city, and I’m like, where the heck is that?
00:17:00 [Melissa]
And I literally will have to email them and say, what state are you in?
00:17:04 [Melissa]
And then they’ll tell me like, oh, I’m I’m in Florida.
00:17:06 [Melissa]
And I’m like, okay.
00:17:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:17:07 [Melissa]
This.
00:17:08 [Melissa]
So there are ways with your weed those things out.
00:17:10 [Melissa]
But you certainly don’t wanna be going down the process with a client only to figure out later on that they’re not even in your city.
00:17:17 [Melissa]
And to be honest, I just had that happen with a dog sitter that turned out she was in Pennsylvania.
00:17:21 [Melissa]
This was not my fault.

00:17:22 [Melissa]
She was in the wrong group.
00:17:23 [Melissa]
That was her thing.
00:17:24 [Melissa]
But that was like a panic moment of, like, we’re going back and forth, and then she’s not even in my state.
00:17:30 [Melissa]
The other thing, the reason why I don’t mind getting the Florida inquiries because I like making sure I’ve got traffic on my website and stuff.
00:17:36 [Melissa]
There’s always the boost that somebody wants to book you even if they’re not necessarily local.

00:17:39 [Melissa]
But I created a referral at previous location, and I vetted.
00:17:42 [Melissa]
I looked at who the photographers were, what’s their style, are they similar to me, and I’m very, like, particular.
00:17:50 [Melissa]
Are they near a price point of me?
00:17:51 [Melissa]
I’m not gonna refer somebody who’s a $150 if my average sale is 2,000.
00:17:55 [Melissa]
Like, I’m just not gonna do that.

00:17:56 [Melissa]
Nope.
00:17:57 [Melissa]
And I did this for Virginia also.
00:17:59 [Melissa]
I did have one client that it backfired on.
00:18:02 [Melissa]
I did not know the photographer personally.
00:18:03 [Melissa]
There were not many lifestyle newborn photographers.

00:18:06 [Melissa]
I referred someone, and she did not know how to use off camera lighting to light up a dark home.
00:18:11 [Melissa]
And so a friend of Allison and I was able to come off her maternity leave, take care of that client and stuff and and get her what she needed.
00:18:20 [Melissa]
But I definitely vetted people more more when I was leaving Florida.
00:18:25 [Melissa]
And so I have a list.
00:18:26 [Melissa]
And in fact, what the girl who’s at the top of the two of them that are at the top of the list, one did my branding photos, and the other one did family photos with me.

00:18:33 [Melissa]
So I had a lot I had experience being their client and stuff.
00:18:37 [Melissa]
But I have a template.
00:18:38 [Melissa]
It’s all ready to go.
00:18:39 [Melissa]
So as soon as that inquiry comes in, I immediately just click my little drop down button to send this particular and off it fires, and it gives them that list.
00:18:47 [Melissa]
And a lot you know what’s funny?

00:18:49 [Melissa]
We all talk about getting ghosted.
00:18:50 [Melissa]
I get so many responses to that stupid email of thank you so much.
00:18:54 [Melissa]
You send out pricing.
00:18:55 [Melissa]
No one like, you hear nothing, but you send out That’s ironic.
00:18:58 [Melissa]
Other yeah.

00:18:58 [Melissa]
Other photographers and suddenly everybody’s, you’re awesome.
00:19:01 [Melissa]
That’s so great.
00:19:01 [Melissa]
And I’m like, I wish you would be that way for all of my inquiries or whatever.

00:19:06 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:19:06 [Alison]
And yeah.
00:19:07 [Alison]
And on that note too, if there is nobody in your price point or that serves your clientele and your niche the way you do, which honestly, I feel that time we left Virginia Beach and I didn’t feel like anybody could speak to the whole fast, fun, done concept the way I did.
00:19:21 [Alison]
I just say, I’m sorry.
00:19:23 [Alison]
I’m sorry, I don’t have anybody.

00:19:24 [Alison]
I’m sorry, I don’t have anyone I can refer you to.
00:19:27 [Alison]
Like, I don’t feel bad about it.
00:19:28 [Alison]
It’s also obviously, if you do, don’t lie about it.
00:19:31 [Alison]
But be helpful where you can.
00:19:32 [Alison]
But if you don’t, that’s fine too.

00:19:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:34 [Melissa]
You definitely don’t wanna refer someone that later on they come back and they’re like, that person was terrible, and then you feel badly about it and stuff.
00:19:40 [Melissa]
Email template and having it because, obviously, I just wanna get those inquiries out and done at that point since it’s not one that is for me.
00:19:46 [Melissa]
And I have thought about creating those.

00:19:47 [Melissa]
And and, basically, the email template right now is because I have not sat down and created a referral blog post, which I I need to do.
00:19:53 [Melissa]
And then I could put that on my contact form and say, hey.
00:19:56 [Melissa]
If you are from looking for someone in Florida, I don’t I’m not there anymore, but click this link, and that will take you to the referral list.
00:20:03 [Melissa]
So that is another option that you can do too.

00:20:05 [Alison]
That’s brilliant.
00:20:06 [Alison]
Gets lots of views and page time on page.
00:20:09 [Alison]
That’s what we’re looking for.
00:20:10 [Alison]
Alright, guys.
00:20:11 [Alison]
If this sounds confusing, it is, but it’s not that hard.

00:20:15 [Alison]
So I actually have a freebie download for you.
00:20:18 [Alison]
It’s basically a flowchart or a giant web to iron out and hash all these if thens that questions.
00:20:24 [Alison]
Head over to the show notes and follow the links there to get that free download.
00:20:28 [Alison]
And as I’ll listen in.

00:20:35 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:20:36 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:20:39 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:20:40 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:20:46 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:20:50 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog or Melissa in her Facebook group, Raise Your Ranking.
00:20:57 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.